Beside Me
by Nyxelestia
Summary: X-Men AU: For many downtrodden mutants, rejected throughout a lifetime of unwelcome blood dictating their lives, Camelot Academy is not just a school - it's a home. But something dark is brewing, and Camelot is no longer as safe as it appears.
1. In Nomine Patri

_**Beside Me: 0.1. - In Nomine Patri**_

**A/N: **So this was originally for reel_merlin _waaaaaaayy_ back. But then I missed the deadline and shoved this onto the back burner, and I'm slowly pulling it back forward. This AU is based almost solely off of the X-Men movie trilogy - actually, all you really need to know is the central theme/conflict to figure out this story, as it's still mostly Merlin-centric.

* * *

_"Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend."_  
- Albert Camus

* * *

**Chapter 0:** _Prologue_

**Part 1:** _In Nomine Patri_

* * *

Hunith stared down at the bundle in her arms. Her son.

Her _son_.

She grinned down at the baby, still barely wiped clean and wrapped in a blanket, finally calm after-

No. She wasn't thinking about that.

She took a deep breath and kissed his forehead. "Welcome to the world, Merlin. Happy Birthday."

"Harry Birthday, my son," her husband's choked voice came from above her. She looked up into Balinor's eyes, puffy from crying, both in joy at the birth…and in grief and terror from what happened right after.

"You can touch him, now, it's safe-"

"You saw what happened," Balinor said, staring in grief down at his son. "He screamed in pain when I touched him, and, and-"

She grabbed his arm, his hand, and pressed two fingers to Merlin's check.

The baby giggled.

"…my son," Balinor said in amazement. "He's…we…we made him. A little boy. A little us."

Hunith grinned up at him.

"He's ours."

* * *

The midwife finished her duties and left, and that very night, Hunith sat in her bed, Merlin in her arms, as Balinor brought food and drink and doted on her endlessly.

"Why did he scream in pain the first time?" Balinor asked, still horrified by what had happened, by his son's screaming the moment they touched, the gold-glowing eyes, and the cyclone of moving objects around them, until Balinor had put a stop to it with his own power.

"That was the first time you touched," Hunith said. "You remember what the doctors said, what Gaius said, his power would be."

Balinor nodded, looking down at Merlin. He sat properly on the bed at Hunith's bidding, and she carefully set Merlin in his father's arm. "I need to piss."

"Hunith, a baby!" Balinor said mockingly. "We'll need to watch our language, now!"

They both laughed. She stumbled and limped across the floor muttering about how the baby would inherit their filthy mouths anyway, and Balinor knew better than to offer her help at this point, no matter how much he wanted to.

Instead, he looked down at Merlin, who was looking up. Mutant or not, babies didn't see much for months, but they could see bright colors right in front of their face, and Balinor smiled down at Merlin, rubbing his nose against Merlin's, who eagerly rubbed back.

He looked around and, finding a little toy in his sight, levitated a brightly colored felt ball from the bedside drawer until it was floating by his chin, easily in Merlin's sight.

He felt the tug of another force on the ball.

"Oh, you're a powerful little one, aren't you?" Balinor murmured in awe. The baby smiled (or at least Balinor thought it was a smile), eyes flashing bizarrely gold as he wriggled excitedly in his cocoon of blankets, and Balinor couldn't resist leaning down to kiss Merlin's nose. Then his forehead. Then his cheek. Then his other cheek…

"He's going to be just as insufferable as you, isn't he?" Hunith said from the doorway, laughing, fondness in her voice. "As if a normal baby weren't a handful enough, now I have to deal with a telekinetic one!"

"I'll be there you," Balinor said. The ball fell, the baby clearly getting tired, his face already relaxing and drifting off to sleep.

A moment later, Merlin was floating in the air.

"Balinor!" Hunith cried in shock.

Balinor laughed, Merlin floating in the air, falling asleep, and into Hunith's frantic arms. "It's fine, it's fine – I have complete control."

She nodded, biting her lip. She knew that, intellectually, but it didn't stop her from worrying. Balinor, however, didn't seem to mind.

"I'm going to teach him everything," Balinor said, grinning as they settled into bed, Hunith setting Merlin in the bassinet by the bedside, but not taking her hand away from his, as she watched him sleep. "Everything I know."

She smiled down at their baby. "I'm sure you'll have him making a nuisance of himself in no time."

* * *

The next few weeks were the best weeks of their lives.

Neither of them really had any family left, but neighbors and friends came from all over to see the new baby.

For the most part, they didn't tell anyone about the incident at Merlin's birth, or even that he was a mutant. While they knew for certain about him, they wanted to wait until it was safe.

Unfortunately, the anti-mutant movements were gaining ground. Even now among friends and neighbors, there were some who watched Balinor apprehensively, having fallen victim to anti-mutant propaganda.

To avoid this, they stayed close to themselves for those first few weeks.

But they enjoyed themselves nonetheless. She wandered around the town with Merlin in her arms, grinning in delight and pride as everyone cooed over the baby – _her_ baby! Merlin was a happy and cheerful little baby, always greeting everyone with a big baby smile, and he wasn't fussy, either. And his telekinesis, rarely, if ever, made a show. When it did, it sometimes cased distrust and fear, but other times, awe, that a baby could be manifesting powers at such a young age.

They rarely, if ever, actually let go of Merlin, Hunith keeping him close all day, and Balinor by night after returning from work.

It was when he was holding the sleeping baby that he would share the troubling news.

"The research at Pendragon Industries is start to shift towards anti-mutant," he said, cradling Merlin's head with his hand, stroking the baby's hair.

He, himself, was trembling.

Hunith stood behind him, looking down at Merlin as she rubbed Balinor's shoulders, before kissing the top of his head. "One day, Pendragon's rage will subside and people will remember all the good things mutants have done and things will return to normal. It'll be fine, you'll see."

* * *

It wasn't fine.

* * *

They were walking home from the park when it happened.

There was a mutant across the street throwing fireballs at several men in Dark Knights shirts, who were apparently throwing rocks at the mutant.

"I know him," Balinor said, suddenly, of the mutant. "Drake Kilgarragh!"

Before their eyes, the fight escalated. People ran screaming from the street, and Balinor turned to Hunith and said, "Run!"

"Balinor-"

"Run!" he shouted again, before turning towards the fight.

He telekinetically shoved back the men taunting the mutant, before containing the fireballs of the mutant, himself.

Hunith backed away, carefully but quickly, pressing Merlin's face into her neck as she watched the fight in horror.

When the mutant shot up twenty feet into the air and slammed against a wall and the men were thrown back, she turned and ran.

* * *

It was on the news, that night, that a conflict between anti-mutant Dark Knights started teasing a mutant, who responded by trying to severely injure them. It didn't manage to, due to another mutant's interference ending the conflict before it became serious.

She and Balinor watched in horror as his face appeared on screen.

* * *

A week later, they came.

Hunith and Balinor were in the front garden, where Balinor was finishing up watering the plants by floating the water over instead of using the hose.

A dark car, several men and women getting out, wearing the signature shirts, black with a white knight's armor and a medieval-style banner proclaiming "Dark Knights" on top, with a "Fighting for Humanity" banner on the bottom.

Feared by mutants everywhere.

"Go inside, and stay there – write down the number plate, take a picture of them, record with the new video camera," Balinor said lowly. "We can charge them for harassment later."

Sadly, harassment was nothing new, and neither was their plan of action to deal with this.

She ran inside and did so as the group slowly approached. Her hands were shaking as she grabbed the camera, making her glad for the CCTV on the street, no matter how old they were and generally unmonitored, still recording it all.

She was snapping and snapping pictures, before setting it to the video setting – and this camera was supposed to be for _Merlin_, damnit, to record him growing up, not, not-

Then watched in horror as one of them threw something through the window.

She screamed and barely ducked as the window shattered just above her. It was a bottle of some kind, and when it shattered on the floor, flames erupted in the kitchen.

"HEY!" Balinor shouted, as she filled the dinner bowls with water to try and put it out, desperately, and oh, god, Merlin, he was upstairs, fire, Merlin, this- "Stay away from my family!"

There were more sounds of shattering glass, and she looked up, coughing as smoke already started to fill her lungs, to see more flames across the hallway and living room.

"It ain't your family we're interested in," a girl said. "It's you, the man that hurt my brothers, last week."

"They shouldn't have been hurting that poor man-"

"He isn't a man," another boy shouted. "He's a _mutant_."

There was more shouting which she didn't hear, too focused on putting out the fires. She heard neighbors screaming, and within a few minutes, she looked up to see several of them with buckets of water in her home, and she asked one of them, "Please, my son, he's upstairs!" and ran outside.

Outside, the men and women were attacking her husband, and he was pushing them back with his powers while trying not to hurt them.

"Get away from him!" she shouted, grabbing the garden shovel and beating at one that was clinging to Balinor's back. "Get away from my husband!"

The man turned, twisted the shovel out of her hands, and before she could move, swung at her head.

"HUNITH!" she heard Balinor shout, and she was on the ground, her vision blackening, but not disappearing. She had to help Balinor. That was all she could think about, but she couldn't get up, couldn't make her muscles move or make her bones listen to her.

And she watched as the half dozen people attacking all flew back and away, out of her vision. She knew when they landed when she heard the sickening thuds.

"Hunith, Hunith, Hunith…" Balinor was muttering as he lifted her gently from the ground, this time with his arms. She heard her son's wailing and the neighbor's gasps, and her head rolled and she saw the neighbors staring at her husband in horror.

"Hunith? Stay with me, someone's already called an ambulance, see, hear? The sirens…"

Hunith nodded, pushing herself up slowly as she slowly regained control of her limbs, looking around. There were gouges in the ground, a few unconscious forms around the yard. Her house was smoking, and she could see people working at the flames inside, while her elderly neighbor, a woman still wearing a nightcap and gown, was holding Merlin and staring at Hunith and Balinor in shock and despair.

She turned around, in time to see one of the girls from earlier approaching – with a gun.

"Balinor!" she screamed, eyes widened in horror.

He turned around to face what she feared.

The girl raised the gun, and Balinor twisted to shield Hunith.

"Fucking _mutant_," the girl spat. "Not even human."

And Balinor jumped to push her away from Hunith.

With a loud _BANG_, it was the last thing in his life he ever did.

* * *

The trial was quick. With the video from the cameras on the street and from Hunith's with Balinor's thinking, the evidence was hard to dispute.

Balinor had killed three of the attackers. Two of the remaining three were sentenced to various years in prison for assault and property damage and a few other crimes which all amounted to _destroying their life_, and the girl was sentenced several years more for killing Balinor.

And yet, it was still a close thing.

Too many people thought highly the Dark Knights. They thought the knights were attacking 'just a mutant', that they were fully in their right to 'avenge their brethren'.

Too many people.

Even some people on her street, who previously never cared that Balinor was a mutant, now avoided her charred and scarred home and looked at her with distrust and fear and in some cases disgust.

And looked at Merlin with dangerous suspicion. Her _baby_.

When someone said the trial shouldn't even be viable, because mutants weren't humans, that murder only counted if it was humans-

She looked down at Merlin and cried.

* * *

She sold the estate for what little she could to developers, moved into her grandmother's cottage in a little rural village, Ealdor, after hiding her tracks so no one could find her again. _No one._ She had to protect them, protect Merlin, and right now, that meant hiding.

In Ealdor, no one knew who she was. No one knew of her history, or Merlin's. She was just a lonely widow, who went through something traumatic, though they knew better than to ask, and she was welcomed with warm, open arms.

Merlin was cooed over by the old ladies of the village, while the men would chuckle and promise to teach him football and flirting and other important skills that would've fallen to his father to teach, and within days, she found her neighbor had a son around Merlin's age named Will, a single father who also lost someone.

They never felt attracted, but they came together all the time to let their babies play while they talked idly, about anything and nothing.

It was a peaceful life. Balinor would have loved it.

* * *

She never told anyone about Balinor.

Not even Merlin.

Until…

* * *

She had screamed, nearly, when she saw Merlin, as a young child, levitating various garden tools before Will.

She talked to Will sternly, and had another talk with his father, who smiled benignly as she downplayed her son's true power. "It's okay, Hunith. I know how dangerous mutants are. But I know Merlin, and he didn't harm Will, they were playing-"

And somehow, the words weren't all that reassuring.

Neither was the apprehension in his eyes as he looked at Merlin before taking Will home.

"Why are you so scared?" Merlin asked, his childish face, barely shed of its baby fat, scrunching up in confusion. "Will thought it was cool. Why can't I show people?" And dear god, he was going to go to _school_ soon.

Hunith cried again, and told him about his father. What a brave and wonderful man he was, and how he was killed for it.

Merlin never showed another person his powers again.

Hunith could only breathe a sigh of relief that her son was _safe_.

* * *

**A/N: Remember, comments are love! :)**


	2. Angel Blood

**_Beside Me: 0.2 - Angel Blood_**

**A/N:** Short and *coughangstycough* sweet! :D

* * *

**Chapter 0:** _Prologue_

**Part:**_ Angel Blood

* * *

_

_"Mutantism is an illness like any other, which has developed a huge cultural impact because of its side effects in those afflicted-"_

* * *

Inside of the bathroom of a luxurious penthouse flat in London, was a little boy who knew this very, very well. 

* * *

_"-and so it is the duty of those who can study and research this gene, this illness, to do so, and-"_

* * *

He locked the door behind him, and set the box on the counter.

The little boy, barely a dozen years old, if that, lifted the box to reveal the set of knives inside, along with other razors, blades, and other sharp things he knew he was not supposed to have.

Gulping in fear and determination, he pulled off his shirt, and stood bare-chested before the mirror. Reaching into the box, he pulled out the biggest knife there was. The blade was the length of his arm, never mind the handle, but it was what would work.

He curved his arm over his back.

And a moment later, cried out, his arm jerking up as the blade dug into his flesh, just above…above…

He lowered his arm and moved the knife again. 

* * *

_"-we must cure these sick, truly and deeply sick, people-"_

* * *

He gasped and whimpered in pain as he cut open his shoulder again, and again, and again, crossing over each other. He could feel blood trickling down his back.

He trembled, and tried to feel encouraged as another bloodied feather fell to the floor.

* * *

_"-erase their genetic abominations by returning their genes to a healthy, human state-"_

* * *

Pendragons were not weak.

Pendragons did not cry.

And most of all, Pendragons _were not mutants_.

Keeping that in mind, he aimed the knife towards the…the…the things protruding out of his back, and pushed down again.

He fought back the scream. Barely.

But he still counted that victory.

* * *

_"-and we will one day have a complete cure to eliminate mutantism from the human race at large."_

* * *

The knife tip sank into one of the _things_ and a sob was ripped from his mouth as it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, hurt, hurt hurt hurthurthurt-

"Arthur?"

He cried out in muffled shock, hiccupping and gasping through the tears.

Dad wasn't supposed to be home for another hour!

He looked up at the clock, and realized it was an hour later.

"Arthur, are you all right?" Uther asked through the door. His voice was worried. Arthur knew his father's voice would be different if he knew, and he knew he had to hide. "The maid says you've been in here for over an hour."

"I'm-m fine, Dad!" Arthur yelled waveringly, cursing the pain leaking into his voice. "Really!"

"You don't sound fine," Uther called out. "Open this door."

"In a minute!" he shouted frantically. He dropped the knife into the box of blades and razors and other sharp things he'd collected and cursed the rattling sound in made.

"What was that?" Uther asked, voice more urgent. Arthur's head snapped up as the door started rattling from his father's attempts to open it. The lock was strong, but so was his father. "Arthur, open this door right now!"

"_In a minute_!" he shouted.

He jumped when the door went _BANG_.

His father was trying to kick the door down.

He doubled his speed, dropping the lid to the floor, following suit as he tried to collect all the bloody feathers, gasping at the next _BANG_, and he had to clean up, fast, lies already forming in his mind as he stood up, cursing as his shaking hands dropped the feathers.

With a last, almighty _BANG_, the door burst open, and Arthur felt he could collapse sobbing (he didn't, only barely) as he whirled around to see his father tumble in, urgent and with paternal fear in his eyes.

The expression turned to one of shock, as Uther stared from the box of knives, to the bloody feathers on the ground…

…to the sight of Arthur's back in the mirror, covered in streaks of red as blood dripped down towards the floor from the wing stubs protruding from his back.

"I'm sorry," Arthur sobbed, as his father stared wide-eyed a variety of emotions flitting through his eyes at the sight of his son being one of…one…of…one of _them_. "I'm so sorry, Dad, please, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry…"

"Oh, Arthur," Uther whispered in horror. "Not you. Not you, too."

Yes, him. Him, too.

* * *

**A/N:** OMG I survived semester finals! \o/

Remember, comments are love!


	3. The Fall

**_Beside Me: 0.3 - The Fall  
_**

* * *

Merlin sat curled on a seat in the waiting room, his knees pulled to his chest, his eyes locked on the door. He was nauseous, and his head hurt and he was really, really, _really_ hungover, but he couldn't leave Will here alone, not after what Merlin did to him.

The doctor came to him around dawn. He kept a careful distance from Merlin, like everyone else.

Merlin didn't blame him.

He got up silently and followed the doctor, hugging himself tighter and tighter for every disdainful look he got from the staff.

Let into a ward of patients, then to a curtained corner, Merlin gasped when the curtain barrier was pulled back.

"Will?" he cried out, running to his best friend's side. "Will?"

"He…" the doctor coughed politely. "He...hit the wall...at a very high velocity."

Merlin heard the, _you threw him into the wall_, in the doctor's voice.

"Low-grade concussion, which will leave him slightly confused, but he will recover. Broken ribs, dislocated arm, fractured femur, severe bruising, minor lacerations – the fairly superficial wounds…"

"…the not so superficial?

"There…there were a few factures in the spine."

Merlin's eyes widened. "Did I…did I paralyze him?"

The doctor sighed. "The angle at which he hit the wall let his extremities take most of the force of the blow. But his lower spine took a few fractures. They would only affect him from the legs down, at most. The fracture's existence will mean that he will need a wheelchair for a while when he wakes up, but we won't be able to tell if there is actual damage to the spinal cord until he wakes up. If there is…"

"…then I've paralyzed my best friend," Merlin said in horror.

The doctor hesitated, then nodded. "Yes. I'm sure you're very sorry." He seemed to mean at least that much. "However, if there isn't, or the damage is minor enough, then he can learn to walk again."

"_Learn_ to walk?" Merlin asked hoarsely.

The doctor have Merlin a look he was fairly certain was meant to be reassuring, but the effect was negated by the apprehension in his eyes.

When it was just him and Will again, he collapsed into the chair and stared at Will's bruised face and stilled hands, and sobbed, just once.

"I'm sorry, Will," Merlin gasped out. "I'm sorry, so sorry, I swear, I mean it, I'm sorry, so sorry-" 

* * *

Mum showed up a few hours later, when her shift at work had ended.

Will's father had died when Will was sixteen, so she had the legal power to fill out forms for Will, despite the fact Will lived on his own, now. Technically, anyway - he usually spend most of his time over at Merlin's place.

He probably wouldn't after this.

She signed some papers and filled out some forms, before she found another chair and sat on the opposite side of the bed from Merlin.

She had yet to look him in the eye.

"You're shaking," she said after a while.

"…hangover…" Merlin murmured.

Mum sighed. "Oh, Merlin." 

* * *

Will finally woke up around sunset. Merlin had been holding his hand at the time, and had felt his friend's confusion, awareness, his realization, and when Will saw Merlin…he felt Will's fear.

Merlin hurriedly let go at that, and even got up to back away by a few steps.

"_Merlin_," Will said firmly, and Merlin stopped.

Mum came back at that moment.

Merlin stayed, rooted to his spot, as she helped Will prop himself up on the bed, murmuring to him quietly, probably about his condition.

It was confirmed when Will suddenly cried out in shock and reached out to touch and feel for his legs, his face already scrunched up in mourning.

Merlin's heart tore at the sight.

In a moment of complete and total guilt induced hysteria, all he could think was that the school's rugby team was going to hate him for hurting their star player.

He was shaking when Will looked up. Merlin didn't need to touch him to know the grief Will was feeling.

"I'm sorry," Merlin said, and fled. 

* * *

The long run home had him stumbling into his house with his muscles screaming, though he really just felt numb.

Shower. Change. And he knew he should eat, but he couldn't really stomach anything, right then, so he had one Mum's protein shakes as a compromise before sitting in the living room and weighing his options on whether or not to check the news.

Masochism won out.

For the first ten or fifteen minutes or so, it was just the usual things. School renovations, corrupt politician, celebrity stalking, robbery, the usual…

Then, it came.

_"…a local mutant, whose identity has not been disclosed, lost control of his power last night while intoxicated, and his power is estimated to involve telekinesis, as he threw someone into a wall. A local rugby star and close friend to the mutant, his injuries are severe, but not deadly, and it is reported that he has already woken. We have not been able to reach him at this time…"_

They never revealed Merlin's identity and only mentioned Will's once in passing.

Yet when he logged onto Facebook, his wall was covered in hateful messages, with only a few expressions of disappointment, from non-anti-mutant people, for hurting Will.

His head snapped up from the laptop when Mum came through. She saw him looking dejectedly at his computer screen and the news channel open on the telly. Switching off both devices for him, she said, "Ignore them." 

* * *

He couldn't. 

* * *

When Mum finally convinced him to see Will the next day, he managed to get himself to the ward and even had the guts to move towards Will's corner on the far end of the ward…

…only to be greeted with the sight of two police officers talking to Will.

He breathed in sharply in fear, and Will, stupid, _stupid_ Will, smiled at him – a forced smile, Merlin could tell – and said, "Hey, Merlin!"

The name triggered faces of aggression in the officers, and one even stood up and grabbed Merlin's arm in a painful grip.

"Hey!" Will cried out indignantly, as Merlin yelped and unconsciously tried to move back, causing her grip to tighten even more. It was going to bruise, he knew it.

"Is this the mutant who hurt you?" The other officer asked.

Mutant. Not even 'guy' or 'person'. Just _mutant_.

"I told you, already, it was an _accident_!" Will said. "I'm not pressing charges against him for his complete and utter inability to hold his liquor."

Any other time, Merlin would've been indignant. Right now, he could only feel fear, a lifetime of news pieces about mutants disappearing in the night flashing through his mind's eye.

He didn't want to disappear in the night.

"Are you absolutely _sure_ it was an accident?" The officer gripping his arm asked, shaking Merlin a little. Merlin gasped in pain. Weren't there supposed to be laws against this sort of thing? He wasn't resisting-

"Let. Him. Go," Will demanded.

The officer obliged, before turning to Merlin. "You better get yourself registered soon, mutant."

"He's only required to do so if he commits a crime, _which he hasn't_," Will said.

"It'll be easier for all for him to be voluntarily registered once he does commit a crime," the officer said.

"_If_ he commits a crime," Will said coldly.

The officers just rolled their eyes at Will and left.

Merlin breathed a sigh of relief when they were gone, falling into the chair, legs too wobbly from the experience.

"Thanks, Will," Merlin said, reaching over to grasp Will's hand in his own. "That was-"

-his hand touched Will's.

He hadn't been pushing down with his power, and felt Will's frustration, grief, anger, and fear.

Merlin pulled his hand back sharply with a pained gasp, staring at Will in shock.

Will laughed nervously. "No…problem…"

"_Why?_" Merlin asked, looking at Will and wonder why he would save him, considering all the negative feelings towards Merlin he held.

"…you're still my best friend," Will said. "Of course I'd still fight for you."

"Even though you're afraid of me?"

Silence.

"Even though I'm afraid of you."

Merlin looked down at his hands.

"Do you want me to leave?"

Will remained silent – even as Merlin got up and left. 

* * *

Now that everyone around there knew he was a mutant, anyway, Merlin _did_ register himself. Fill out the little form, mail it in, and…and…now his name was on a national database that anyone could access on a whim, that along with other identification and the fact that he was a mutant.

Mum had just sighed when he'd told her.

Will had stared in shock.

"Why the fuck would you just _blacklist yourself_ like that?" Will had shouted in his living room when Merlin had gone over and told him.

"What if I lose control again?" Merlin challenged. "What if this happens again, or worse? Everyone already knows, anyway!"

"Only people _here_ – you just blacklisted yourself _everywhere_! Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"For the same reason you still won't let me touch you," Merlin said curtly.

"I'm not afraid of you!"

But when Merlin reached over the table for Will, he pulled his hand away, hiding his emotions – hiding his fear.

Will sighed. "Get some Sprite over here – we have a lot of clearing up to do on Facebook."

His best friend made no sense, sometimes. But he was a damn loyal bastard and for that Merlin was eternally grateful. (Why? Why was Will still on his side? _Merlin_ wasn't on his side, why was Will? Merlin was a _mutant_ - Will had every right to hate him. So why didn't he?)

As Merlin levitated some cans over from the kitchen, Will opened his laptop and logged onto his Facebook.

He frowned when Merlin didn't log onto his.

"I've already read it all," Merlin said dejectedly. "Your wall, mine, anything tagged with our names."

Will's face hardened as he read through all the posts offering support in the _obvious_ betrayal of his best friend against him, offering links to various anti-mutant groups, and even offerings to help Will cover his tracks should he want to take more direct action against Merlin.

One bloke even said outright that he had the list of the best places locally for Will to assault Merlin without getting caught and being able to get away with it.

"Pick the one in the central village," Merlin said morosely, still remembering the emotional storm he felt when he touched Will, as Will read through the list. "We can go for ice cream after."

"This isn't funny-"

"I know that!"

There was silence, before Will said, "Why would I go anywhere else? I know where you live, and your mum buys good ice cream, anyways."

Merlin laughed humorlessly, and Will added, "I'mna check your Wall."

Some more silence as Will read, and then he said, "Have you been checking your Wall, reading all this?"

"Yeah."

"Stop, then," Will said, eyes hardening as he read through the posts directed at Merlin, age-old over-protective spirit temporarily winning out against his fear of Merlin, apparently. Mum had done a damn good job of making sure Will knew Merlin was his responsibility when she wasn't there to look out for him, and most of the time that was annoying, but right now…

Merlin frowned. "How can you be afraid of me and protect me at the same time?"

Will sighed, unsure. "I...you know me, Merlin. How many times am I going to have to pound this through your thick skull? You're still my best friend, no matter what you did to me. You're like my brother. I hate you, but I love you. It's like monarchy and democracy."

"…that made no sense at all."

"Just because I'm advanced in political sciences doesn't mean I'm _actually_ speaking a different language, and it won't be so no matter how many times you say that," Will scoffed and said preemptively. "You artists and your weird brains."

Merlin looked down at his hands and Will said, "Seriously, Merlin, stop reading these, okay? I'll deal with them."

Merlin frowned but nodded. He was used to letting Will fight for him. Merlin liked to bring peace, and Will liked to argue, and they usually balanced each other out.

Usually.

Will started clicking and typing furiously, his look getting more and more smug every few clicks.

"…what are you doing?" Merlin asked as he opened one of his art programs. Art goofing was good. Making a few wallpapers or some texture packs always relaxed him. And it's been, oddly, a while, and his last one did get almost a thousand downloads…let Will deal with this. He was the git that liked to argue politics at every turn, politics and everything else...

"Responding to the little fuckers," Will said. "And hah! Marion's online, and she already responded back to me…that cunt!"

"Will!"

"You read what she wrote!"

Merlin relented, his classmate's words running through his head over and over again, calling him a liar and a genefuck and saying he should disappear in the middle of the night like all the other mutants everyone has heard about on the news since childhood.

Merlin remembered her coming to his tenth birthday party and bringing a box of biscuits she'd made herself, complete with the recipe so he could make some more on his own – or rather, with his mother – later if he so wished.

Last night, it had been _that_ comment in particular which caused Merlin to break down and sob his guts up as he realized just the levels of hate now being directed at him from childhood friends.

Mum had found him trembling in his bed like that when she got him, and he had cried into her shoulder.

Dead embarrassing, actually, but she had soothed him, then told him to finish his summer homework he'd procrastinated and gone to make dinner. The fact that homework was now a comfort made Merlin wonder if it was some kind of statement about his life, now.

"She's a bitch," Will scoffed as he typed. "Unfriend her. Unfriend all these stupid motherf-"

"Will!" Merlin knew he should be used to Will's foul mouth by now, but really, this was just a bit much. Merlin didn't warrant that. Did he?

"She just told me I should kick you out of my house before…"

"…before what, Will?"

"Before you bring it down on our heads," Will muttered.

"…you agree with her," Merlin said. His tactile empathy had given him the skill to discern people's emotions even without touching them, but he wasn't sure he would have needed that to see the answer on Will's face.

"That you _can_ bring it down? Yes," Will said, keeping his eyes locked on his screen. "That you _will_ bring it down? No. I already told her just what she can do with her stupid opinions."

And after a bit, he said, "Check your Wall, now, and mine."

Hesitatingly, Merlin logged on and checked. The posts were still heart-wrenching. But Will had responded to all of them in his usual cheeky and angry way, calling them all hypocrites for remaining friends with drunk drivers and yet not Merlin, and going on rants about the damage he suffered compared to the victims of the aforementioned drivers' victims and generally using his logical rage that made his blog such a popular hit.

On his own Wall, Will posted that Merlin was his best friend and anyone who hurt him would have to answer to Will-

"Don't read the comment," Will said suddenly.

Merlin reloaded the page and read the comment, anyway.

It was a link to a webtest to see if you were being mind-controlled by a mutant.

"…I told you not to read it," Will said.

Merlin just stared at his screen, remembering his friend, with the freshly baked treats just for him, telling him how much she hated him. 

* * *

On the first day of school, Will never left Merlin's side if he could help it, glaring at everyone from his wheel chair.

A few people were still nice to them both. Some admonished Merlin just for losing control, rather than being a mutant, and wishing Will to get better, and Merlin held on to their faces, their relatively kind words.

Because most people were the exact opposite of that.

The taunts, the dirty looks, rained down on him alongside school supplies thrown at him, all day long.

Halfway through the day, someone threw a book at him in the hallway, laughing. It was a hardcover, and Merlin stopped it in midair, before letting it drop right in front of him.

Between them and the next class, Will was forced to leave him, as he wasn't in Merlin's art class.

At the end of the say, Mum had to come pick him up from school, after he was too covered in bruises and scratches and a slightly twisted ankle anda sprained wrist to be able to make the long walk home.

By the end of the week, he was pulled out of school entirely.

That night, Will came with pizza and some soda, making Merlin float him from the wheelchair to the sofa and spread out the pizza and soda over the table as they studied together – or pretended to study, anyway – and Merlin had just a few cups and slices, and he lay on the couch and said, "You're still afraid of me."

"…yeah."

"Mum won't let me touch her skin-to-skin, either, anymore," Merlin said quietly. She tried to hide it, yapping about cold weather as she started wearing more gloves and long sleeve shirts, but Merlin saw how careful she was being when she touched him, and remembered his childhood of hard times when she tried to hide her emotions from him, and he knew what was really happening.

"Merlin…you…we…"

He just continued to stare at the ceiling.

"I went to see the orthopedist, today," Will said.

Merlin's blood stilled. "Oh?" he croaked out.

"…I'll be in this thing-" he gestured towards the wheelchair. "For a while. I'll…I'll eventually learn to walk, but…" He sighed. "Professional rugby is pretty much out of the picture."

Merlin shut his eyes, feeling tears well up. "I'm sorry."

Silence.

"Well…we both knew it would end with me in politics, anyway…just a little faster than I expected…"

His voice was shaky. It was clear what he thought.

"I took away your future," Merlin said. Will didn't deny it. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…" Will didn't try to stop him, either.

There was another tense silence, before Will said, "I…I always loved rugby. _Always_."

And Merlin knew this – he'd been there when Will first found his love of rugby, watched as it grew on him, as he rose up the ranks as a star, as he looked seriously towards professional levels and…and…

"I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely.

Will didn't respond.

After Will left, Merlin curled up on his side in the bed and murmured into the ether, "Whatever I did to make you hate me so much, I'm sorry," murmuring to whoever made him a mutant, made him like this. _I'm sorry. Are you happy, now?_

* * *

The online classes and independent study were all right, but lonely.

And he no longer could go onto online forums to find someone to talk to, not after the Forum Raids from several years before. How could he forget the waves of disappearing mutants, their information gathered from some seemingly well-intentioned forums and online groups? How could anyone forget?

No one wanted to disappear in the middle of the night.

…it was lonely.

After two weeks, Merlin came home from trying to relax in the isolated parks to see his mum crying on the couch, an ended video on the television screen.

"Mum?" he asked tentatively, approaching her on the couch softly.

She sniffed and said, "This…this is the video that was used during…during the trial for…for the attack."

Without further explanation and going only on her tone and reaction, Merlin knew which attack she was talking about.

"The lawyers tried to argue that your father's murder was justified," she said. "They tried to use this video as proof. It nearly worked, too. And your father had told me to switch on the camera so we could just…charge them for harassment, when they came. We didn't…"

Merlin slowly couched before the television and rewound the video, before hitting 'PLAY'.

It was a scene of a lawn, and immediately, he saw his father, Balinor Emrys, standing on a lawn, surrounded by half a dozen people, locked in confrontation. With a squint, he recognized their shirts – one of the older logos for the ever feared Dark Knights.

Merlin watched as one of them pulled something out of a bag, and threw it in the camera's general direction. He heard shattering glass from just beyond the camera's sight, and his breath hitched as he heard his mother's screamed.

_"HEY!"_ his father shouted. _"Stay away from my family!"_

_"It ain't your family we're interested in,"_ a girl said. _"It's you, the man that hurt my brothers, last week."_

_"They shouldn't have been hurting that poor man-"_

_"He isn't a man,"_ another boy shouted. _"He's a mutant."_

He watched as their shouted descended to physical fighting, the people being pushed back, but not hurt, by Balinor.

He watched as his mum suddenly appeared, grabbing a shovel and trying to use it to pry a man off his father, and felt his blood boil when the man turned and twisted the shovel out of her hands and swung it and hit her head with it. He could hear the _thwack_ of the impact, and the dull thud as she landed in a shifting heap on the ground.

_"HUNITH!"_ his father shouted, and Merlin watched as the attackers were all thrown well away, like Will, so much like Will, _exactly_ like Will, and then his father was on the ground, clutching at his mother and muttering something, as behind him, the girl pushed herself and pulled out a gun from her waistband.

At the last second, Balinor turned at Mum's cry and her pointing.

The girl raised the gun, and Balinor twisted to shield Mum.

_"Fucking _mutant_,"_ the girl spat. _"Not even human."_

And Balinor jumped to push her away from Mum.

_Bang._

Merlin watched in horror as his father's body fell to the ground. The girl and one other man, the only other conscious one, ran away to a car and drove away, and Merlin watched as his mother clutched at his father's body, wailing and sobbing.

"Those three," she said from behind him, her hand appearing in the edge of his vision to point out three of the attackers' bodies on screen. "They're dead. Killed on impact."

He gasped at the knowledge that his father had _killed_ people.

Killed them with the very same power that ran now in Merlin's veins.

He watched as the lawn was flooded with emergency services, ambulances taking people away, police officers talking to Mum and neighbors and observing the scene.

Talking to one of the officers, Mum disappeared, and then the camera was being picked up, and then the screen went black.

Merlin reached for her hand, and she didn't pull away.

He felt fear.

Even if his mother wasn't scared of him – _if_ – she was terrified of the possibilities. 

* * *

It came to a head when a week after that, Mum lost her job.

"I was just laid off, sweetie," she said, tears in her eyes anyway. "Money and shaky economy and all – they had to let go of me."

She was the only one let go. She was in management, and Merlin knew she was one of the core people who would've only been let go in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

"It's for the best, anyway, the environment hasn't been the best," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"Just…they've heard about you. But I can ignore it."

"Mum," he said, horror and guilt thriving in his blood. "What was going on?"

She sighed. "The usual nasty words about you. When I defended you…well, you don't need to know."

"Yes, Mum, I do!"

"_Merlin_," she said sternly.

Merlin grasped her hands in his own – these days, he wore the gloves, now, for her reassurance, mostly. "Mum – please…what was going on?"

She shut her eyes and told him, told him about the taunting she too endured for still loving her son after what he'd done, for keeping him, for defending him…the abuses she endured.

Merlin choked, sobbing, as she told him what they called her for being the mother of a mutant.

He hugged her close.

And in his mind, he was already making his plans. 

* * *

He was packing by the next day.

Packed, unpacked, packed again, unpacked again. At one point, he had an entire suitcase packed, unloaded it, then just a large overnight back and his backpack, unloaded those…

Then he ended with just his school bag.

Taking a deep breath, Merlin packed just two changes of clothes, his wallet, a sketchbook and a small pencil box, and one of those airport-sized toiletry kits. And that was it, all he could fit into the bag. He'd considered his laptop, then decided against it. It was old and bulky and heavy and would only weigh him down. He was also leaving behind his mobile – he cancelled the contract, so his mum would have a little more money for herself, and so the police couldn't trace him if they decided to come after him.

The bag was light when he shouldered it. His whole life, packed into a single schoolbag.

It was still early autumn, but he dressed warmly, anyways.

He had eaten well at dinner a few hours before, getting as much as he could of Mum's cooking, so for now, he just took several snacks for the night and the next day.

He left a note for his mum. He'd penned multiple letters and thrown them away, again and again. In the end, he gave up, just printing out a copy of her favorite stationary he'd made for her, and wrote simply, _Don't worry about me_. He knew how utterly insufficient it was, but it was all he could do, for now. He left it next to his phone on the desk.

As he walked down the street, he realized what it meant, to run away completely from...everything. After compressing everything of his life into a bag, and transferring money from his own bank account online to his mum's to cover the bills she would have trouble with as she jobsearched, he had almost no money left to his name. Maybe enough for a few cheap meals, if that.

But he'd make it. He had to – he had no other choice.

There was nothing left for him to do but _run_.

* * *

**I had a bit of a shit day, so please leave some comments as they make me happy. **

This is the end of the Prologue, so I may take a week's break for coding and writing, depending on my life and scheduling (neither of which are really up to me at this point), and post again in March with the first chapter of Part 1.


	4. Trust Me

**_Beside Me: 1.1 - Trust Me  
_**

* * *

**A/N:** It wasn't seen in the movies, but in the comics, 'muties' was often used as an insult or bigoted slur against mutants, and was incredibly derogatory in its use.

* * *

**Thank you to my betas, _Las Vegas Lights_ and _Arithilim_.**

* * *

Merlin took a deep breath and slipped into the dingy pub.

He was immediately assaulted by the smells of cheap beer and lit fags and the dim lighting and the sound, the depressingly familiar _smackWHAM_ of fists hitting flesh.

On instinct, he started backing away from the sound, wanting to avoid another pub brawl, but with a few blinks and a squint, he saw the fighting ring in the center, and the two men in it beating the hell out of each other.

That didn't actually make Merlin feel much better, but it was enough to go order some food. He hadn't eaten since breakfast, which had been a quarter past midnight, and right now it was a quarter _to_ midnight. Though he was used to long periods of time without food, by now, that didn't make the hunger any easier to bear.

In five minutes, Merlin was sitting at the bar, a small bowl of chips in front of him, and watching the two men leave the ring. One looked half beaten to death, the other looked almost completely unharmed. Scanning the pub, he saw several people looking him over curiously.

However, only a few people were looking at him with _interest_.

Tonight might be one of those rare nights where….

…damnit. He was hungry, and he _really_ needed the money.

No…he could go a little longer without money, right?

His grumbling stomach begged to differ.

It was so rare to run into pubs where this was possible…seedy as the ones he entered all were, most of them were filled with straight men (or men who were deep enough in denial to refuse even him). But on the few occasions where he _had_ run into someone like that…or gone into a gay pub of some kind…

He turned back around to eat the last of the chips, shutting his eyes for a brief moment of indulging comfort.

Money. Food. Maybe, just maybe, someplace _warm_.

Then, he unzipped the last of his jacket, lowered his jeans to barely hug his hips, loosened his scarf to reveal his neck and collarbones, mussed up his hair, and topped it all off by angling his bag's strap to tug a bit on the shirt to reveal some arm and a sliver of hip. When he turned around to the crowd, his eyelids were lowered in a sultry expression, and his lips were quirked in a seductive smile.

He hated this.

He focused his attention on two men in the back. They had shown interest in Merlin earlier, and their clothes suggested they would at least be _not poor_, and so Merlin would probably be able to make a fair amount of money off of them, even out here in the middle of nowhere.

Both of them were leering at Merlin as they came towards him, and Merlin managed to ignored the skin-crawling sensation it caused by focusing his thoughts on the hot meal these two could pay for. And possibly a night in a hostel.

"Hello, gents," Merlin said languidly as they approached. It was rather on the despicable side that he could do this – and that he was getting good at it. (He hoped he'd never _be_ good at it.)

"Hey there, boy," the shorter-but-bulkier of the two said. Then each took a seat on each side of him, and Merlin internally sighed when they each slung an arm over his shoulders.

Well, at least they weren't too ugly. They weren't nice looking, and they'd have to scrub up big time to be handsome, but they weren't vile. That usually made things more bearable.

But – Merlin was the one being paid. They wouldn't scrub up for _him_.

"What's with all the suggestive looks, boy?" the taller one asked.

"What do you think?" Merlin asked, voice low and professionally seductive.

"Interested?" the short one asked.

"For a price," Merlin answered. Hot meal, hot meal – and with two men, maybe even a night in an inn, instead of the usual cold hostels.

The two men shared a look over Merlin's head.

Their hands tightened on his shoulders. "Let's go, then," the taller one said.

They pushed Merlin up, then stood as well, and Merlin added, "Half now, half on delivery."

Now the men's grins turned feral.

Merlin knew what that meant.

The short one's hand slid down his shoulder to his arm and his grip tightened to a painful level.

Not good, not good, not good!

"Tell me, boy," the tall one asked, his grip also painfully tight. "Why shouldn't we just _take_ your…services?"

Not good, _really_ not good, but he couldn't lose this head.

"I'm not defenseless," Merlin said coldly. "Either pay up or I leave."

The man clearly didn't believe him, if the way he started marching Merlin towards the door was anything to go by, even as he struggled to back away from them, ready to use his telekinesis-

"Hey!"

They all turned to see the winner of the fight Merlin had walked in on striding up towards them, a tall muscly guy with long-ish brown hair. "Let him go."

"We're just having some _fun_…" the short one drawled. "What's it to you?"

"Thank you," Merlin said politely. "But I don't need your help. You really don't have any need to-"

"Shut up, kid," the man said, focusing on the men. "This is no time to be brave."

Merlin rolled his eyes, and watched the men's eyes widened as the two table knives were floating in front of them, the tips pointing at their necks. They were staring between the knives and his eyes, flashing gold.

He smirked just a little vindictively. He was able to defend himself, but he met plenty of other people, other women, other _kids_, out on the streets, who could not. Every time he defended himself, it was for them.

People who were normal. Who weren't runaway muties, who deserved protection more than he did.

Startled, the men holding him jumped back with a yelp, and Merlin stepped away from them.

"See?" he said semi-sarcastically to all three men.

The knight in no armor quirked an eyebrow at him, staring at the knife.

He raised his hand, and Merlin's eyes widened upon seeing metal claws emanate from between his knuckles.

_Mutant._

Three of them, they were all like blades, long and dangerous, and Merlin had no idea where they'd come from.

"They're muties!" the short one cried out in shock, as the claws retracted, back into...back _into_ his hand.

The tall one took that as his cue, launching himself at the walking hero complex. The man punched him out with his now-clawless hand, and was apparently ridiculously strong, as the tall guy slid across the floor, down two tables, and landed unconscious. The short guy threw himself at Merlin, who held him hovering a few inches in midair, and a punch from the guy who tried to save Merlin had him out, too.

Several other men in the pub were suddenly equally alert, and Merlin whirled around. He had no idea if he could take on this many people at once-

But he didn't have to – the man right beside him held up both fists and released two sets of claws, a warning in his eyes as he glared at those around him.

Merlin could see the skin splitting where the claws were – they cut through his fist every single time.

It looked painful.

The other people in the pub shared a few hesitant looks before sitting down, and the people who hadn't stood up in the first place went to help the two unconscious men.

The man beside him retracted his claws, before stalking over to a corner of the pub and grabbing a thick coat, donning it, and heading back in Merlin's direction.

"Right, you – you're coming with me."

Merlin hesitated, but with a quick glance around the now hostile pub, he followed the man out the door and into the freezing cold.

~*~

The man led him through the thin snow and rapid winds to an old van, brown, beat up, but well kept.

He opened the passenger side door. "Get in."

Merlin hesitated, and the man rolled his eyes. "You're probably more powerful than me, kid. At least enough to run. Besides, you'll freeze out here."

Getting into a car with a clearly-dangerous man was an _incredibly_ stupid idea. But, Merlin knew the man was right – he would freeze, or at least be more miserable than usual, and he's done stupider things, anyway. If nothing else, this wouldn't be his first time getting into a car with a strange man he could feel was dangerous.

Keeping alert, Merlin clambered into the van, and put his seatbelt on as the man started the car.

"Where're you headed?" the man asked.

"Um…North."

The man nodded, pulled out of the car park, and turned northbound towards the motorway.

"…thank you," Merlin said after a few moments. "Most blokes wouldn't have done much, if anything at all."

"Glad to help," the man said. "A young kid like you shouldn't be in a place like that, let alone doing the things you were."

"I needed the money," Merlin said simply. The man sighed and didn't respond. "What's your name, by the way?"

"…Wyvern."

Merlin nodded. "Am I safe in assuming that's not your real name? Or were your parents really that interesting?"

"I _wish_ my parents had been that interesting," Wyvern said wryly. "So – what should I call you by?"

"Warlock," Merlin answered, using the moniker he'd taken up on the streets. A real name could be dangerous, especially now that he was a registered mutant.

Wyvern smiled at that. "You still haven't told me _where_ you're headed, you know."

Merlin paused, before reaching into his bag and retrieving his print-outs from the Internet cafe he'd managed to spend a whole day in, now creased and crumpled after weeks of abuse on the road. Normally, he wouldn't share this kind of information. But this guy was a mutant, too. That didn't make him anymore _trust_worthy, but it meant they had similar fears, and they could get similar goals.

"Camelot Academy," he said. It was a cheesy name, but also oddly reassuring.

"Isn't that some mutant school or something?" Wyvern asked.

"Yeah," Merlin said. "I've heard about it, once, a long time ago – it was attacked, so it went kind of underground. But it's still there, actually, and…I have to try. I've nowhere else to go."

Wyvern nodded. "Where is it?"

"North Scotland," Merlin replied automatically, holding up the choppy map in the man's peripheral vision. "West of Aberdeen and south of Inverness. That's all I really know. They keep the location hard to find for people who don't go there or have family there. Finding out about the school at all had been an accident for me."

"Not too far from here, then," Wyvern said. "We can drive and be there by tomorrow night, if we only stop for petrol."

"Yeah," Merlin said. Maybe this could turn out good…

"You sound relieved."

"I've been traveling for a while, now," Merlin said.

"Where from?"

"Cornwall."

"How long?"

"Since mid-September."

Wyvern whistled. "That's over a month, now. It's a long way, but…"

Merlin nodded. "I only recently found out about the school, a bit more than two weeks ago – I was still in Bristol, then. And I can't always hitchhike – so I've mostly been on foot, taking a train when I can, when I get enough money." Though he usually spent it on food and a night in an inn when he got any. "And I've been set back a few times."

"…'set back'?" Wyvern asked.

"Yeah – once almost halfway down the entire country in one night."

Another whistle, with a raised eyebrow for elaboration, from Wyvern.

"I was…left unconscious, on a southbound train."

"You were 'left unconscious'?" he asked dubiously.

Well, he wanted to know.

"Drugged," Merlin said bluntly. "I was knocked out in Glasgow, woke up in an A&E in Manchester. I had to sneak out before they could ask me anything, and make that entire distance all over again." And hadn't _that_ been a delightful experience?

"Why were you drugged?" Wyvern asked, eyes narrowing. Merlin wondered whether it was out of concern or suspicion.

He wondered what it said about him that after only a month on the streets, he could no longer tell the difference.

"Some bloke didn't have enough money to pay me for…to pay me. So he…robbed me, instead."

"You mean raped you," Wyvern said, voice suddenly tight. Upset about the rape of a whore – a real knight in shining armor, this one.

"Occupational hazard," Merlin replied stiffly.

"You are far too young for this kind of 'occupational hazard'."

Merlin laughed. "Probably. But it's an easy way to earn fast money. Besides, my age usually works in my favor – good advertising and all."

"How old are you, exactly?"

"…I turn seventeen in December. I'm in my last year of school."

Wyvern hissed lowly when he heard that. "Fucking hell."

"Yeah," Merlin said bitterly. "Being a mutant means never being too young for anything."

Wyvern slowly nodded. You'd have to live under a rock to not know what mutants feared, especially as he _was_ a mutant. Once upon a time, even _children_ could vanish into the night. It wasn't as bad, now, as it was back then. But it was still a cloud over mutants, a fear in limbo, and on the edge of becoming that bad again.

And Merlin was no longer a child.

"So," Wyvern said, conversationally. "If you've been traveling a month, how'd you find out about the school just a week or two ago?"

"I spend time in Internet cafes," Merlin said. "When I get enough money."

"No friends or family?" Wyvern asked curiously, but with a tone that said he knew this could be a dangerous topic.

Merlin wondered how much he should reveal to the man. The man made him feel safe, but he already knew better than to trust that feeling. However, he also severely doubted the man could use vague knowledge of his family against him anytime soon.

"...I lived with my mum, but when my powers became public where we lived...I had to be pulled out of school, she lost her job...and my best friend...I hurt him."

"On purpose?"

"...I was drunk," Merlin said, caught between wanting to not say a word and wanting to spill his soul out. Wyvern was really easy to talk to, but that could turn out to bite him in the arse if it went wrong. "We'd just gotten some results in, and were celebrating - he knew I was a mutant - and I lost control, threw him into a wall. That's how people knew. I ran before anything else could happen to them because of me."

Apparently, spilling out his soul was winning. Damn. He was supposed to be stronger than this.

"What did she have to say about it?" Wyvern asked. "Your mum? Mums aren't usually too happy about their kids running off into the middle of the night like this and selling their bodies for meals."

"I didn't tell her, just ran away in the night," Merlin said, trying to hide his regret. He got a bad feeling he didn't succeed. "And she couldn't send anyone to find me, obviously, anti-mutant shit and all. I've only talked to her once since then."

"And?" Wyvern asked. Merlin gave him a suspicious look, but Wyvern just returned it with an amused glance. "I'm not a spy - the mutantism I just showed you isn't something you can fake. I'm just curious. You seem like a good kid, and I can't help but wonder how and why you ended up turning tricks in seedy pubs in the middle of nowhere."

Merlin sighed. "I'm not that good," he said.

There was a long pause, before Wyvern said, "Either you can elaborate on that, or tell me what your mum said."

"I don't have to say anything," Merlin said. But then, this bloke was the one driving.

"I know."

"...I told her about the academy, that I was going there," Merlin said. "She told me to be safe. And...then she just went on about her usual education importance bollocks - I think she was trying to pretend things were normal." He paused. "I may or may not have given her the impression I…that my life is better than it is. She has enough problems as it is. I just want to get to that school."

Rolling his eyes, the man said, "Well hopefully you can get some proper classes in this Camelot place."

"That's what I'm hoping for."

"I'll take you there."

Merlin looked at Wyvern sharply. "All the way there?"

"Yeah."

"…for what?"

If it was one thing he learned on the streets, it was this – nothing came for free.

Wyvern laughed. "Not for any of _your_ services. No, I'm just interested in this Camelot place. If it's a safe place for mutants…"

Merlin nodded carefully. He doubted the man would really do this for free, but at least he seemed to genuinely plan to take Merlin there, for his own purpose if nothing else.

He had a random thought that Will would be proud of him, by now – he always said Merlin was too good-hearted and trusting by half, believing in the goodness of people.

His outing as a mutant and his time on the streets has changed that. He'd become a much harder person, better able to face the world and everything he knew it was going to throw at him. He didn't like the person he'd turned into, but that person was the only way he'd survive.

When they stopped at a petrol station, Wyvern took a good look at Merlin, looking for injuries of some kind, and when he saw something he didn't seem to like, he reached over and-

"No!" Merlin shouted, pulling away, staring up at Wyvern's hand fearfully.

Wyvern frowned but pulled sharply away. "What?"

Merlin shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "Bad things happen when I touch other mutants. I have to be careful – why I'm still so covered up, and the gloves and stuff."

Wyvern's eyes narrowed, but he slowly nodded. "Fine, kid, fine."

When the tank was filled and paid for and they had gotten some food, he said simply, "Let's go."

And they headed off in the home stretch towards Camelot.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm fairly certain that if Rogue had been able to touch people, she probably would have resorted to prostitution, too (then yay for Logan rescuing her! :P *is a total fan of their almost-father/daughter awesomeness*. So in that instance it was probably a good thing that she couldn't touch people without killing them. o.O

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**Comments make me happy, so click that review button and drop a long! You know you want to. ;) All reviews welcome, from just a single word to a long rambly essay, I love them all!  
**


	5. This Could Be Home

**_Beside Me: 1.2 - This Could Be Home  
_**

* * *

**A/N:** For one, this fic is an _AU_ of, not a crossover with, X-Men. The actual characters, organizations, ect. from the X-Men franchise probably won't feature in this fic much, if at all – **this fic is only _loosely_ based on the franchise**, pretty much only connected by the whole mutant thing, one some generalized plot elements. Otherwise, this fic is still predominantly Merlin-centric.

Also, the "Class" system – you see them with Greek letters in the comics, but numbered 1-5 in the movies, with 1 being the weakest, either a minor power, physical mutation with no power, or a dormant gene, and 5 being the strongest, basically capable of ripping apart a country or even theoretically the planet at will. I use Roman numerals I-V in this fic.

* * *

**Thank you to my beta, _Las Vegas Lights_.**

* * *

A day and a half later, the van drew up to a fucking _castle_.

It looked like something that belonged in 10th century France, in myths and _magic_ – not belonging to modern day Scotland and housing mutants, the anomalous epitome in genetic science.

White, grand, and big as it was, Merlin looked on in awe, and he could _feel_ the safety this place could provide for mutants.

There was no moat, sadly, but there was a large stone wall around it, at least for the parts Merlin could see – there appeared to be a few acres of land around the main castle, making the entire complex seem all the more bigger.

In a gap in the wall, there was an iron wrought gate, and, looking rather incongruous with the school, there were lots of security cameras around it, and an intercom.

"What's your real name?" Wyvern asked as they pulled up to the gate. "Considering we're a bit beyond code names now that we're here…"

"…Merlin."

Wyvern raised an eyebrow, and Merlin sighed.

"My mom was a bit of an Arthurian legend nut. My parents knew I'd be a mutant long before I was born, and an unusual one, so they thought it'd be fun or something like that."

The man laughed. "We got named by the same legends, then. I'm Gwaine."

Merlin smiled, and got out of the wan and went towards the intercom.

He hesitated, especially as he saw one camera swivel to face him, but then pressed the _TALK_ button.

"Hello?" Merlin said into the speaker.

Silence.

"…hel_lo_?"

"Hello," a man's voice responded just when Merlin was about to repeat himself. He sounded slightly old, and his voice was polite. "Please state your business."

Merlin glanced back to where Wyvern – er, Gwaine – was getting out of the van, holding the door as he warily watched the gate.

"This is the Camelot Academy, right?" Merlin asked.

"Yes, it is."

"Um…we've been…this is a school for mutants, right?"

"Yes." The man was being oddly monosyllabic. But maybe answers like these help protect the school, somehow. "It is."

"Then…could you please let us in? Er, we're mutants…"

A lifetime of drilled in secrecy made Merlin's heart clench in instinctive terror at just outright saying it, that he was a mutant. But he heard simply, "Please come in."

A buzz-whir sound echoed from nowhere, and the gate was opening.

Stepping back carefully, Merlin slipped silently into the van again, and once the gate was fully open, Gwaine drove them forward.

"Well," Gwaine said quietly. "We're here – let's hope you were right about their mutant reception."

Merlin laughed nervously and nodded.

The castle was still huge when they went towards where the road led them near the front towards a rather grand looking entrance at the top of a lot of stairs. In the distance, Merlin could see what appeared to be some children around a tree and one adult, but other than that, it looked like everyone else was inside.

"A school, right?" Gwaine asked. "You didn't tell me you'd be going to Hogwarts."

Merlin laughed, abrupt and unexpected. "I hadn't…I hadn't known. The website only gives the general area for where it is…the rest is password protected to protect the kids here, remember?"

Gwaine nodded. "Makes sense…"

When they pulled up near the entrance, there was an old man waiting for them, wearing slacks, with a small radio in his pocket, and a sweater Merlin was fairly certain went out of production about fifty years ago.

"Hello," the old man said pleasantly when they slowly got out, and Merlin identified him as the man from the intercom.

Merlin tried to smile politely. "Hello, um…I'm the bloke from the…intercom…"

He felt rather stupid for saying that, but the man remained polite, nodding at Merlin, before looking at Gwaine.

"Hello," Gwaine said simply.

"Welcome to Camelot Academy," the man said, with a gentle and welcoming smile on his face, gesturing that they should follow him. "For Gifted Students. I am Dr. Gaius R. Wilson. Just call me Gaius, everyone does."

Gifted…well, that was one word for it.

They were led through a series of hallways and staircases that had Merlin nearly lost, except for some helpful signs posted here and there giving a rough map of each floor – and seriously, this place was _huge_ – and led them into an office in a room in the middle of the castle.

Inside, lots of books and bookcases, sofas, and a desk with a fancy monitor and what looked to be a powerful computer underneath – Merlin could just see Will drooling over the processing power the thing looked to have – and Dr. Wilson…er, Gaius…sat in the fancy chair behind the desk, and indicated they have a seat in one of the many chairs before the desk.

Merlin sat down immediately, and Gwaine eyed the room a little warily, before he sat down, too. Both of them had pushed their chairs back a little, so it would be easy to get up and run instantaneously.

He felt oddly comforted that he wasn't the only nervous one, here.

"Now, since you have my name, it seems only reasonable for me to have yours," Gaius said, pleasantly.

"I'm Merlin Emrys," Merlin said. He was startled to see a look of recognition pass through the man's expression, but Gaius then smiled wanly at him, and looked to Wyvern beside him.

"Gwaine," Gwaine said simply, offering a hand. Gaius shook it with a smile.

"From the looks of you boys, am I safe in assuming you have been travelling for quite some time?" Gaius asked, leaning back, as if they were all just chatting idly. From the alertness in his eyes, though, Merlin didn't doubt that everything they said was being carefully filed away in the man's brain.

"I always travel – don't have any place to settle down," Gwaine said with a shrug. "Go wherever the work goes. I picked up this one-" He jerked his head in Merlin's direction. "About two days ago."

Gaius turned to Merlin and raised an impressive eyebrow at him, asking for an elaboration.

"Um…I've been…I've been traveling for a few weeks, now," Merlin said. "From Cornwall…mostly on foot, a train here and there when I could manage a ticket."

Gaius smiled and nodded. "Well, I can find a place for both of you in this school – even you, Gwaine, if you are willing. A few caveats to that, though."

Merlin's eyes widened as Gwaine sighed beside him, and Gaius shook his head.

"Well, Merlin, you are a student, I believe so this one does not apply to you," he said congenially. "Gwaine, though – I have no trouble with adults finding sanctuary within my school. However, this is not purely a charity – you will be expected to work one way or another, or contribute to the school. There are many positions possible for this school, but I will not be able to allow you to laze about and feed off the system, as I have a limited amount of resources at my disposal. You can work here, and will be receiving pay, while being provided for. Or if you can find any other way of contributing to help the school, you will be readily accepted. But this will not be a free ride for non-students."

"I expected as much," Gwaine said. "If I stay, I'll work."

"If?"

"I only heard about this place when I offered the kid here a lift," he said. "I mostly came to get him here, and because I was curious."

Merlin looked at him, rather surprised. He'd seem so genuinely interested in the school…

Gaius nodded. "Understandable – I can afford for you to have a few days to get a feel for this school. After that, however, you will need to make a decision."

"Sure thing."

"And, something for both of you," Gaius said, looking at them both. "I have certain agreements with the government in order to maintain the safety and secrecy of this school. One of them is that all mutants here be registered. I understand you might be hesitant or even frightened of this measure. I can arrange for the file to be government access only, and requiring a high security-clearance to be seen, as well as a requiring a reason or warrant to view. But, it is a necessity for our collective protection. I am quite sorry, but I felt you must know."

"Oh, um," Merlin bit his lip. "I'm already sort of registered…I filled out the little form thing, anyway, the most basic one. Public database." Of the levels of registration, Merlin had at least opted for the least intrusive one, basically just telling the database his name and that he happened to be a mutant. "Do I need to go for one of the higher levels?"

"No – basic level is enough. I will ask to alter the access level of your file. Gwaine?"

The man sighed. "I'm…let's just say the government already knows all about me. So yeah, I'm registered."

Gaius smiled. Merlin imagined if he'd had a grandfather, he would have smiled like that.

"Good. One unpleasantness out of the way. Now, I would like to give you both a brief medical check-up, both to ensure you have no serious medical complications, and to gain a better understanding of your powers. Don't worry, I do this for everyone who comes through here, and most of them find it as much of a nuisance as you likely will, soon, but all of them agree it is necessary. If you will follow me, gentlemen."

* * *

Gwaine followed Gaius alongside Merlin.

They walked up and down hallways and staircases – Merlin was going to need a map of this place, he just knew it – and reached an infirmary. Inside, he was met with the strange mix of some of the most modern and up-to-date looking infirmaries set inside stone walls and archways of the castle room.

There were two rows of five comfy-looking beds with curtains around each, and through an archway in another room, Merlin could see another room of medical equipment, with four examination tables, two rows of two, at the end.

With a gesture from Gaius, they took a seat on two tables, facing each other.

"I think I can say right off the bat you're a touch malnourished," Gaius said while eying Merlin critically. "I will need to draw a blood sample to get an accurate measure of it-"

"Try _very_ malnourished," Gwaine muttered.

"-and to look for other illnesses, and keep your DNA on record," Gaius said amicably. "See what your genes say of your powers, that sort of thing. And any other medical issues relating therein."

"Give him a full STD work-up, too," Gwaine said immediately.

Fucking bastard-

"Hey!" Merlin shouted, feeling blood rush up to his face in fury and humiliation, tears prickling at his eyes.

This man may have helped Merlin, but that didn't give him any right to make any sort of medical choices, or any other choices, for Merlin.

_None._

Gaius frowned in alarmed confusion, while Merlin glared at Gwaine.

"_What_?" Gwaine challenged, leaning back on the bed and staring down Merlin. "I believe you're the one who called it an 'occupational hazard'."

"Actually, I hadn't-"

"Be glad I didn't suggest a full rape kit!" Gwaine said.

"What are you talking about?" Gaius asked, a look of deep concern on his face as he looked at Merlin.

Merlin shut his eyes. He was so hoping to avoid this. He could have just come here and then forgotten all about this, but no, this prick had to…had to…

Damnit.

He sighed.

"I…I didn't have much money when I ran away, sir," Merlin said, hesitantly. "I did whatever it took to survive on the streets, and…well, good looks can go a long way. I…"

Gaius's expression turned to one of saddened understanding. "I understand, my boy. And, Gwaine is right to worry for you."

"…I made them use condoms," Merlin grumbled indignantly, face still red. He couldn't believe he was talking about this with them! Gaius was so…he was like a grandfather, and he had to wipe at his eyes as humiliation got to him. Why the hell did he have to go through this?

"And the time you were _drugged_?" Gwaine demanded.

"Gentlemen," Gaius said, placating. "It might reassure both of you to know that our DNA renders mutants immune to most venereal diseases."

"It's the few we aren't immune to that worries me," Gwaine said under his breath.

"Why do you even _care_?" Merlin demanded. "You barely know me."

"You're a good kid-"

Merlin laughed, disbelieving. "Like I said, you don't _know_ me!"

Gaius sighed. "Gwaine, perhaps you would like to get some rest in one of the infirmary beds while I talk to Merlin?"

Gwaine smiled sardonically in understanding. "Of course, Doc."

And he walked out, smiling sadly at Merlin before slipping into the next room.

Merlin sighed, dropping his face into his hands. A moment later, he jerked away, alarm on his face, when Gaius had reached out to rub his shoulder.

Gaius held out his hands, showing them both, in a calming gesture. Apparently, he'd dealt with a lot of fucked up kids, before. Not surprising - this was a school for mutants during an anti-mutant government regime.

"Sir," Merlin said. "Bad things happen when mutants touch me skin to skin, so…so please be careful."

Gaius nodded in understanding. "Your power."

"…yeah," Merlin said, nodding, wrapping his arms around to hug himself after setting down his bag on the bed beside him."Um…I can like…absorb mutations…I can absorb mutants' powers. I don't _take_ it, they still have it, but…the absorbing part, itself, hurts, a lot. For me, and for them, and it can leave their powers weak for a while after, too."

Gaius nodded, turning around and pulling on rubber gloves. Merlin breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw that. "If you will roll up your sleeve, Merlin, I will draw your blood to take a look at your DNA later – it will let me have a much better understanding of your power."

Merlin nodded, pushing up his sleeve and letting Gaius draw the blood. The man vialed it, labeled it, and put it in the fridge as Merlin rolled his sleeve down over the band-aid and fidgeted on the table.

He wondered what Gaius would find out. Would he able find a way for Merlin to not absorb powers? Would he find out what Class of mutant he was? Merlin always felt like a II, but he thought maybe a III was more likely, if he was able to get some more powers as Mum had always said, however much he didn't want to. He hadn't really met other mutants, obviously, so he didn't know a lot about it (but he knew enough). He doubted he was a Class IV, and seeing as he has yet to kill himself in a violent fury of his own power he obviously wasn't a Class V. Maybe Gaius could figure out how many powers he would absorb before he just couldn't get anymore? Or-

"Now," Gaius said, leaning against the table opposite to Merlin. "Will you please explain what you know of your power?"

Merlin nodded. "Well…the only real one of my own I have is to absorb people's powers. I've had telekinesis all my life because when I was born, my father – he was a mutant – touched me."

Gaius gave Merlin a shrewd look. "Your father was Balinor Emrys, I'm assuming? I suspected from the moment I saw you, but I wanted to be sure."

Surprised, Merlin nodded, staring at him in confusion. "Yeah…why? Did you know him?"

"Yes," Gaius said, smiling at Merlin paternally. "We were both researchers and activists, for mutants and mutant DNA." He paused. "You and I have already met, Merlin – I was a good friend of your parents many years ago, and I was one of your mother's doctors when she learned you would be a mutant. I attended your christening, and was the first physician to see to you after your birth. I've been to your parents home several times, too." The old man smiled a little sadly. "The last time I saw you and Hunith was at your father's funeral."

Merlin swallowed. This was the first time he'd ever met someone beside his mother who knew his father, even knew _about_ him, beyond the fact his father's name was well known as one of the first mutant casualties of the Gene Riots. And the idea that he may have met Gaius before in his life, even if he didn't remember it…

"You knew them?" Merlin asked hoarsely.

Gaius nodded, a sad look on his face. "Your mother and I drifted apart after your father's death, and I haven't heard from her since then. Tell me, how is she?"

"Er…all right I guess, now," Merlin said. "She – she was lonely, I think, after my dad, but…we managed. We lived very well. She took care of me, did everything she could to give me a happy childhood."

Gaius smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. Considering what happened to so many other mutants and their families…I'm only sorry that I didn't try to search for you two harder – perhaps you could have been a student here much earlier." Another pause. "Though considering the attack on the school so long ago it's probably just as well you weren't."

"Um…right," Merlin said, not sure what to say. Gaius seemed to realize his dilemma.

"Ah, sorry, my boy, for subjecting you to the bumbling woes of an old man. Please, continue, Merlin," Gaius said, softly.

"Um…when I was little, about seven, we had a gardener over to help lay down some grass in my mother's garden, and I had touched him, and…suddenly, it was like my blood was on fire, but at the same time I felt really cold, like my bones were made of ice or something, and it hurt and I got dizzy and I hadn't really eaten by then so I just passed out. My mum talked to the man – he had empathy. He could know what people were feeling just by touching them, and I've been able to do the same since then."

Gaius's eyebrows went up, but he nodded.

"I've become a fan of gloves and long sleeves since then," Merlin said. "I can control the other powers, but I still don't know how to not absorb people's powers."

"We offer students a chance to train and understand their powers in one of our classes," Gaius said. "Perhaps you will discover something then."

Merlin brightened at the thought.

"Anyway…since then, I've only gotten one more power. It wasn't long after I ran away. One of the…one of my…um, someone I met on the streets – I hadn't known he was a mutant, and when…" _When he shoved his cock into my mouth._ "…when I touched him, the same thing happened. He could see in infrared light."

"Can you control that?"

"Yeah," Merlin said. "I could shut it off. Same with the empathy thing. I haven't seen anything in infrared since that night."

"But you still have the power?" Gaius asked.

"Yes. All my powers, they just stay there in my DNA afterwards. Those powers I can control, easily – the only one I can't control is my own."

Gaius seemed surprised. "You aren't the only mutants to be able to take other mutants' powers and capabilities…but I have never heard of someone who manages to actually _keep_ another's powers – especially without taking it from the original mutants."

Merlin swallowed.

"Um…right. Well, I still prefer to avoid it. It's painful and I don't _want_ more powers."

Gaius nodded. "It's all right, my boy. Normally, I like to see new students' powers in action, but I think for this case, I will make an exception, as it causes you pain. If you are ever willing to demonstrate, however, let me know. You can take the power from me – I can heal people, to a certain extent, by touch."

Merlin hesitatingly smiled. Being able to heal people just by touching them sounded rather nice, actually. "Um, maybe…later?"

"Whenever you feel up to it, and not a moment before," Gaius said, smiling. "Now, what are the effects if touching nonmutant humans?"

"Nothing," Merlin said. "Not even people with normal human genetic mutations, the not-mutant mutations and stuff. Only mutants, specifically."

"And, what of the mutants after you absorb their power?"

"Fine," Merlin said. "My dad held me all the time as a baby, and I used to hang out with the gardener while he showed me how to use the empathy and how to properly make a flower bed for my mum."

Gaius smiled. "Bit of a green thumb?"

"…um, not really…I just, I just like nature and stuff, my mum's the gardener," Merlin said, blushing slightly.

"I have a student whose power is control over living plant life. She almost singlehandedly maintains the flower gardens on campus. I will be sure to introduce her to you."

Merlin liked the thought of that.

"Is that all you know of your power?"

Merlin nodded.

"Well, then, for the rest of the check-up…" Gaius went over some place and pulled out a form. "I keep an active medical file on all my students. Do you have any doctors or primary care physicians who I can contact?"

Merlin shook his head. "My mother was a nurse, so she could always take care of me. And I was a healthy child, anyway. Apart from a visit to an A&E for a broken arm when I was six, I never had to go to a doctor. And we worked hard to keep my genes a secret, so…"

Gaius nodded. "Well, then…on that note, how did you break your arm? Just for the files, if there's no physician for me to contact."

"I was trying to levitate myself onto our roof. My friend was already there – he's the only one who knew about my power – shouted something at me and my concentration broke and I fell."

Gaius seemed surprised.

"You could levitate a friend? Yourself?" Merlin nodded. "Hm…telekinesis is a fairly common power – I have many students with that as a primary or secondary power – but being able to levitate people at the age of _six_…well, that's fairly impressive. The Hover Games will be happy to have you." At Merlin's look of confusion, he added, "The telekinetic students have developed a series of mock tournaments and games to test telekinetic power."

Merlin blinked, stunned at the possibility of other kids with the same power as him, moving things with their mind like him, and, and _playing_ with them, and competing even, and, and-

"Now," Gaius said. "Any other serious injuries I should know about? No? Good."

He continued his way down a series of common medical questions, illnesses, medications, family history, the usual.

When Gaius paused at a question, Merlin glanced at the form.

Sexual history.

Oh, no. "Do I…?"

"Yes, Merlin – I at least need to know if there is anything you have done that is potentially harmful. I understand this will be difficult – I do, in fact, have one other student who had also had to resort to such measures to survive. I know this is difficult. Just tell me what you can."

There was someone else in this school like him? Like him as not just a mutant?

Merlin went through it quickly, refusing to look up at Gaius's face as he explained what he'd done just to get to this school, to survive out on the streets. He'd left home in a flurry of grief and atonement, and in barely a week he'd gone from good kid to mutie whore. (He made sure to phrase it in another way to Gaius, though).

They finished up with less painful questions, along with a lot more questions about his power, and with that, Gaius put the file away by the computer, and he went into the other room, gesturing for Merlin to follow him, where they accidentally woke a dozing Gwaine, and Gaius handed Merlin some things while telling Gwaine to continue sleeping. "I'll show you to your rooms before I deal with Gwaine."

* * *

Merlin walked slowly down the corridor, looking at all the numbered doors around him.

"When the castle was built," Gaius said. "It had a few room sizes. Small servant quarters, slightly larger servant quarters, rooms for guests who were not nobles, rooms for guests who _were_ nobles, and rooms for the royal family. These are those 'servant quarters'."

All the doors were numbered, and many had placards with names of students, either one or two to a door, and most of those had other signs bearing the students' names, as well.

"These," Gaius, pointing towards doors with one name on them. "Are the smaller ones, and rooms for individual students. These-" The two-name ones. "Are bigger, and are for students to share. The rooms without names are empty ones, and you can take any one you want, either a single one, or if you can find a student by the end of today who you would like to share with, you can join them."

Merlin nodded, already deciding on a single one.

"You are allowed to decorate your room all you want. Encouraged, in fact. Just so long as whatever you do can be taken down or washed off at the end of the year for the breaks, because that is what you will do. And I don't mind students moving around when they wish – though I cap it off at no more than once every other week. Just let me know if you change a room."

Another nod. "So, if the servant quarters are the dorm rooms, what are the other rooms?" he asked, curiously. He looked at the paper map of the school Gaius had provided, much to his and Gwaine's relief ("I told you this place was Hogwarts!"), and got a pretty good idea of where everything went.

"The smaller guest rooms are the personal rooms for the staff," Gaius said. "The larger ones are used as classrooms. And the royal chambers have all been converted into various common rooms, three large and four smaller ones." Gaius smiled fondly at Merlin again. "Your friend Gwaine wasn't the only one to make the Hogwarts connection, either – a few years back, the students named each of the smaller four lounges after the four Houses from Harry Potter and rearranged all the furniture so the colors would match appropriately."

Merlin smiled at the thought. He would have to start looking for the more serious online House tests. He was pretty sure he was Hufflepuff, but he did like the thought of being a Ravenclaw…

"Now," Gaius said, stopping Merlin in the middle of the hallway. "We generally endorse a bedtime between eight and ten, in the evening, though you can stay awake in your own rooms. We do not have a curfew for wandering inside the complex, though be warned, from nine in the evening to six in the morning, any infractions of the rules will receive double the punishment. Unless you have permission from a teacher, you are not allowed out of the castle main during that period."

Merlin nodded. "I'm not…I don't much like causing trouble, sir."

Gaius smiled. "Good, then. The kitchen is open at all times – we are well aware how off-track many students' metabolisms and dietary needs are. You can eat all you need, though please do not take this as license to gorge yourself unnecessarily. The meal times are in the pamphlet."

Merlin, yet again, nodded. This was so much information, so fast, and so soon after spending weeks on the streets, focused just on making it to the next day alive and with food in his stomach if he was lucky.

"Classes start at nine in the morning, and generally end mid-afternoon, depending on your age and schedule. Tomorrow, we will have you sit a series of exams to determine where you are, academically, and we will create your program accordingly. For today, you can settle down in your room and explore the castle to get a good idea of where everything is."

"Thank you, sir," Merlin said, turning his head again to look at the empty rooms.

Gaius patted his shoulder. "It is no trouble at all, Merlin, it's what we're here for. Make yourself at home."

"I mean it," Merlin said, looking around, down at the pamphlets in his hands, everything. "I just…thank you. For making this place, for us to be safe."

"I didn't make it, Merlin, I just run it now," Gaius said. But he smiled and added, "But you are welcome, Merlin. And so long as I have something to say about it, this school will always be a safe place for you."

With that, he turned and left.

Merlin wandered through the corridors, opening various nameless doors to check inside them. They were all pretty much the same – a single bed, a desk with a small lamp, and a wardrobe. The rooms, despite being from a medieval time, had room lights, and electrical sockets. Every few rooms would be one of the bathrooms, with dividers between the multiple showers and toilets.

All in all, considering these were actually dormitories, they were actually quite luxurious.

It was in a daze that he picked a room, near the end of the hall, and set his bag on the desk.

His room felt somewhat empty as he packed away his meager belongings, but it was still his.

He sat on his bed and skimmed through the pamphlet, glad to see the parts that older students were allowed out on the weekends to the local village a few miles away (seriously, Gwaine was right, this place was Hogwarts). He didn't have much money left, considering how his last 'sale' was interrupted, but he had enough, so he could go buy a set of clothes on the weekend.

He jumped as suddenly, he heard a bell ring, before relaxing – it was signaling the end of a class.

And even as he listened, within a few minutes, he heard several people in the hallway outside. He even cracked open a door to look. Most didn't notice or pay attention. Seeing as there were actually almost four hundred people in the school, according to the pamphlet, people probably didn't know each other well enough to instantly recognize him as new, for which Merlin was grateful.

Stuff packed away and map in hand, Merlin went out to look around the castle. Seeing as it was going to take forever to get a hang of the place, he might as well get started on it now.

* * *

By day, Arthur Pendragon was the star of Hurstierpoint College. He was a football and rugby champion, and he had an excellent academic record, second to almost none in the school. He was human, he was normal, he was real, and he was perfect, or tried to be.

He tried, because then maybe it would make up for his imperfection, the biggest deformity one can have.

At night, he was just a mutie, trying desperately to pretend he wasn't, and wishing his father could find the cure faster, so much faster.

He wanted to be Uther's son again, human again, and real again.

This night in particular, he tugged off the straps holding him in and holding him together, and breathed a sigh of relief as his wings spread out. He stretched and stretched until all six meters of feathered muscle were reaching across the corners of his room. It felt good to finally be able to stretch them again. Beneath his slitted shirt, his entire torso flexed to match them. (Another advantage of wings were the brilliant chest muscles he got to go with them).

_"Your muscles look so good through your shirt,"_ some girls would say at school. _"Why don't you take it off?"_

Luckily, they were the sympathetic sort, and all it took were a few lies about an old spinal defect and surgery scars to keep them from probing closer.

Then he pulled them back in, just enough, and pulled the screen out of his window, and clambered up onto the edge, before looking down the three stories to the ground.

_"Don't worry,"_ the well-bribed researcher at Pendragon Inc had said after analyzing Arthur's wings. _"He will need to maintain them so they don't atrophy and affect the rest of him before we can find a cure, but he won't need to fly or any such thing."_

(Arthur had breathed out a sigh of relief at the time – he wasn't going to turn into a bird.)

_"Just some stretching and tension exercises we can work out so the muscles will not develop into full-flighted wings but will not atrophy, either. Don't worry, Mr. Pendragon – we can make sure the mutations will have minimal impact and your and your son's lives."_

After Arthur's wings started growing, they'd moved out here to the country, where it was more secluded and much, much, _much_ more private. Arthur had hated it at first, missing the city with fierce longing (and a part of him was looking forward to being able to back to the city, as soon as he was cured). But at times like this, he found it useful.

He turned so he was facing into his room, feet on the ledge, hands clutching the sill, his curled body hanging off.

Then he started moving his wings.

His wings were the weakest muscles of his body, limbs that he rarely got to use. But he couldn't let them atrophy from dysfunction, and so he did use them.

It felt a little ridiculous, flapping his wings while hanging off the edge of the window, but he knew better, now, than to just drop and hope for inertia to help.

When he felt himself lifting up almost, amid the drafts of air surrounding him as it went from his wings to the walls and back to him, he let go.

There was that brief moment of terror, like there always was, that he would just fall and kill himself (and today was one of those days where this was a bad thing, though not all days were).

A jerky movement, however, and he was up in the air.

He didn't go far – barely a few dozen meters up (he never flew higher than that), in short, choppy movements that made him feel rather clumsy in the air (he tried to remember that soon it wouldn't matter), before he glided down and dropped onto the roof.

He would love to be whole and fully human, again. But when the day came that he was cured, he would still miss his wings.

With a heavy sigh, he slipped off the roof and went back to his room, strapping his wings close to his back again, trying to feel like that was right, that was okay, that was where they were supposed to be..

Soon, and it would all be over. Soon, he would be a real person again.

* * *

**Comments make me happy, so click that review button and drop a long! You know you want to. ;) All reviews welcome, from just a single word to a long rambly essay, I love them all!  
**


	6. Hello, There

**_Beside Me: 1.3 - Hello, There  
_**

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry it's late! i iz sick and spent the day sleeping and staring at my homework.

* * *

**No beta, as I have no patience to speak of. :P**

* * *

By the end of the week, Merlin was in Gaius's office. He gingerly took his program and smiled at what he saw – most of them were his favorite subjects.

"Now then," Gaius said. "Do you have any plans for university? Or your career?"

"Er…"

Gaius smiled gently at Merlin from behind his desk. "We have our own psychologist – whom I am sure you will meet soon enough – but I do act as a counselor for my students, as well, Merlin. This includes you, now."

Merlin nodded. "I…I just…something that involves art? Especially computer art. Design and stuff. I'm good at it. Maybe advertising type things or something like that…? Or street art, maybe, if I make enough money, one day."

"Do you enjoy it?"

"Yeah," Merlin said with a nod. "A lot."

"That is all I would wish for you at this point," Gaius said. "You scored quite well, Merlin. You are a very bright young man."

Merlin blushed. "Thank you, sir."

"Now, you will be shown around by a student named Guinevere – I believe I told you about her? – for classes and breaks. She is waiting for you outside."

"Thanks, sir," Merlin said, getting up.

"Have a good day, Merlin."

"You too, Dr.-"

"_Gaius_, Merlin – just Gaius."

"Right – have a good day, Gaius."

Merlin exited to nearly run into a girl waiting outside. Dark skin and dark curly hair, but with sweet brown eyes, and roughly his age, dressed in loose clothing and large jeans, with a sturdy school bag over her shoulder – Merlin felt rather good about her.

"Guinevere?" he asked hesitantly.

"Just Gwen," she said pleasantly, holding out her hand. "Gwen Smith."

"Merlin Emrys," Merlin said, shaking her hand. "Gaius said you're going to show me around?"

"Yeah," Gwen said. "All our classes we either share or they're right next to each other, so showing you around will be easy for me."

"Thank you."

"No problem," she said, pleasantly. "I like meeting new people."

A bell rang, and within moments, there was a soft thunder of footsteps as kids all poured into the halls and headed for class.

"Let's go, then!" Gwen said cheerfully, before turning and heading down the hall. She pointed out various rooms and their teachers and classes, the bathrooms, pathways to other important parts of the castle, and other important rooms as they went, regaling him with stories of her own first few days at this castle and how terribly lost she had gotten.

"There is a system to the castle's layout, it's just a little difficult to see at first glance, even on the map," she said. "I can show you later – once you get it, it's very easy to find your way around."

Merlin nodded, head swiveling with every single little thing she had pointed out, thinking there was no way that he would be able to easily navigate his way through this place. It was just so damn _huge_ that he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed-

There was suddenly a small hand clasped inside his gloved fingers.

Surprised, he looked down to see a little boy there. He was young, barely even nine or ten years old, and had brown hair and sweet, gray-blue eyes – but with a gaze that said he knew just a bit too much.

"Erm…hello," Merlin said, turning a baffled gaze to Gwen about the boy who just appeared. She giggled when she saw him.

"That's Leon," she said. "He's a telepath – he can read minds – and he has a habit of popping up randomly and helping people like that."

The boy squeezed his hand, and Merlin turned to look and see Leon staring up at him – not quite smiling, but almost. Then the boy faced forward and continued to walk, as if it were perfectly normal to hold his hand, as if they'd known each other forever.

It was, actually, oddly reassuring.

A few hallways down, Leon gave one more squeeze and wandered off.

Without having ever said a word.

"That was…weird," Merlin said, blinking after him.

"As opposed to the rest of a medieval castle full of teenage mutants?" Gwen asked.

Merlin grinned.

"Oh! I never asked – what's your power?"

"…um…" Merlin swallowed. "My power is….is…complicated. But the one I use is telekineses."

"What's your main one, then?"

"I can…if I touch a mutant skin to skin, I absorb their power. Not _take_ it, they still have it, I just have it, too. But it's a painful process on both ends, so I just try to avoid it. It's why I wear so much."

She nodded in understanding. "I control plants, live ones…oh, here!"

She pointed to a tree outside the window, and her eyes narrowed in concentration, and Merlin's jaw dropped when the tree swayed, and a branch lifted up and waved at him.

The tree went back to normal, and Merlin turned to stare at her. "Gaius mentioned a mutant who could control plants, but he never said anything about this!"

She laughed and tugged him into a classroom, which turned out to be their English class. "Come on, Merlin – we can show each other more later."

He nodded and sat down for the class.

Gwen suddenly waved someone over, and a pale, hazel-eyed brunette came over, looking about his age.

"This is my best friend-"

"-Morgana," the girl finished, holding out her hand. "Nice to finally meet you, Merlin."

Merlin looked at her in alarm – how the hell did she know him?

"So you saw him coming, then?" Gwen asked.

At Merlin's look of confusion, Morgana said, "I can dream the future. I saw this happening over a week ago. Telekinesis, empathy, and can copy people's powers into your own DNA, I believe? Artist, multi-medium, but especially computer graphics? And, you're gay. Mostly."

Merlin stared at her, slack-jawed. "How did you…"

She laughed, sitting down beside him after exchanging supplies with Gwen. "I saw it. I do that a lot."

"She does," Gwen said, with a shrug. "You'll get used to it."

"Um…"

"You'll see," Morgana said with a wink, before taking out a pen, flipping over Merlin's notebook, and writing on the back of it. "Now, as I already know you're going to be obnoxiously good at this class, here's my e-mail. I'm going to start copying from your notes instead of Gwen's. She's not that great at this class-"

"Hey!" Gwen said, but her tone was jovial.

"-because she's too invested in her biology and whatnot," Morgana continued. "On that note, you should copy her notes from biology, she's brilliant at it. Her and her plants."

Gwen stuck her tongue out, and they settled in for class.

It was an average and somewhat jarring but still engaging class. Throughout the class, Morgana filled in gaps, with things like, _that's Mr. Collins, he can learn any language in the world in less than a day, and he only checks half the homework_. Or, _there's Mary, she can make her voice sound like anyone she wants to_. And, _there's Val, he's a prick, but he's great with animals, especially reptiles_ and other such tidbits about students, the teacher, and the class in general. Merlin listened to both her commentary and the lesson (the latter of which Morgana found boring), and overall, ended the class with a large smile on his face.

And, well, Gwen was good at the class.

"Just not as good as you," Morgana said, when Merlin voiced this.

"I'll just take your notes from her, then, shall I?" Gwen said, pointing to Morgana as they packed up at the end of class.

The next class, sociology, Gwen went to the class next door, but Morgana was in it with Merlin, so they continued sharing notes as Morgana pointed out various other students, explaining their personalities, powers, and various important aspects of their personal histories.

"It's all so much," Merlin said as they left the class to head for lunch.

"You'll get used to it, everyone does," she said. "Now come on, Gwen's about to introduce you to her boyfriend. But, word of advice: he's straight as an arrow and loyal as hell to Gwen. I would know, I've tried to shag him, _twice_. It's tragic."

Merlin could see why it was tragic, and why Morgana sought to warn him. The bloke was absolutely gorgeous. If you looked up 'tall, dark, and handsome' in the dictionary, his picture would be by it.

"I'm Lance," he said, holding out his hand. "Merlin, Gwen said?"

Merlin nodded.

"Merlin Emrys," he said. "What's your, um, power?"

Lance smiled, and a moment later Merlin's eyes widened as the guy floated up out of his seat and towards the ceiling.

"I can fly, basically," he said. "You're telekinetic, right? How strong?"

With a grin, Merlin concentrated on his own body, and levitated himself up to the ceiling as well, smiling down at Gwen, laughing, and Morgana, who was rolling her eyes. He didn't do this often but…

"We'll have to race some time," Lancelot said. "No one else here can fly – except for the kid with bug wings – and only one of the other telekinetics is powerful enough to lift herself up."

"Come back down to your seats, boys," a passing professor said.

Merlin laughed, and he and Lance obliged, and a small part of Merlin still felt this was too good to be true, actually playing with his powers, with someone else who had a power, too! It just…it was bizarre. But it felt so _good_, to not have to hide it for once in his life.

"That's actually pretty good," Morgana said. "Not many telekinetic kids are that stable and un-wobbly in levitating themselves."

"I've been doing it since I was a kid," Merlin said sheepishly.

Morgana whistled, impressed. "You're definitely a Class III, if you could do that as a kid. Hell having powers as a kid is usually a Class III thing. Maybe even a Class IV."

"Er…thanks?" Merlin said, unsure of how to respond to that.

Morgana gave him a shrewd look and said, "Maybe even a Class _V_…?"

Merlin's eyes widened, and Gwen said, "Morgana, don't tease."

She just smirked and rolled her eyes. "What? It would be kind of cool."

"Um, no, I'd rather _not_ have my new friend die in a violent storm of his own power," Gwen said, sticking his tongue out.

"Not _all_ Class V's end up like that," Morgana muttered under her breath.

"Sure they don't," Lance said with wry politeness.

And a few minutes later, Merlin was introduced to another student who could do the same thing as Merlin, another telekinetic, and then so many other kids had similar powers, being able to move specific objects, and they all seemed so pleased to meet Merlin and...

He felt someone hug his waist, and looked down in time to see Leon wrapped around him before the boy wandered off again, to sit by some girl who appeared to be glued to a textbook of some kind, looking frazzled as she read aloud to herself.

Huh. He _could_ get used to this.

* * *

When he had left home, he had only left a short note for his mother – _don't worry about me_.

When he was able to check his e-mail two weeks later, he had a one-word e-mail from her: _why?_

He sent her every news article about disappearing mutants he had ever bookmarked, every statistic, for mutants, and most importantly, for their families. He sent her the bills she would have to pay even while she looked for a job (and the ones saying that now she wouldn't, as Merlin had used the money from his savings to pay them off, considering he was the reason she lost her job in the first place). He sent here the copies of the comments of him on his now-dead Facebook account about him.

He had ended that e-mail with, _do you really have to ask?_

A while after that, Merlin had called her. He didn't tell her where or how he was living, or what he was doing to earn it, but instead told her about the new place he was headed to, a change from his aimless wandering. She wished him luck, and tried to offer him some money to help him – but she still didn't have a job, and would only be able to pay for water and utilities for another month – after that, if she didn't have a job, she would have to give something up.

Instead, he had quickly changed the subject, enough for his mum to remind him the importance of education, of getting to that school soon, before needing to wish her a hasty goodbye, as he had been using a payphone and his time was running out.

Will had never contacted him at all.

Right now, he sent them both a quick, short e-mail:

_I'm fine, now. I'm safe. Hope you are, too._

He sent it off quickly, before he could talk himself out of it.

The message back from his mum said: _Thank god you are. Where are you?_

Will just said: _Fine_.

* * *

Merlin found a phone and sat nervously, his mother's phone number on the screen, before he finally jammed his finger into the 'send' button before he could do anything else, and held the phone up to his ear.

"Hello," his mum's curt voice said. "Hunith Emrys speaking. Who is this?"

_Just say something, damnit._

"Hello?" she asked again.

_It's not that hard!_

"If this is a prank call-"

"Mum?"

A beat, then-

"Merlin?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Merlin! Oh my god, where are you? Are you safe? You never responded to my e-mails or anything! You had me worried sick, especially with the latest round of riots going on!"

Merlin swallowed. The latest go of anti-mutant riots started just after he reached Camelot. Maybe he should have called her sooner…

"You know that school I told you about? I made it."

A long sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear that, sweetheart. I'm so glad to hear you're all right."

"This…this school, for mutants," he said. "It's run by…by someone…he says he knew you. His name is Gaius, Dr. Gaius R.-"

"-Wilson?" she asked, startled. "Gaius is alive?"

Merlin stared at the wall in surprise. "You really knew him, then?"

"Yes, he and your father used to work together all the time. He used to have dinner with us, sometimes. He still…he vanished after the Gene Riots, I…I thought he was dead."

"No," Merlin said. "He…this place, it's kept hidden, because it was attacked a long time ago, but I found it, by accident, and…it's safe. It's brilliant."

He heard sniffling on the other end. "So you're okay?" she asked, voice thick with tears.

"Yeah," he said. "I…this place…there are a few hundred other kids here. All mutants, too, and…"

"I wish I'd known this place existed," she said softly. "I would have sent you there as soon as I could."

"Like I said, they keep it really low profile, don't advertise or anything. You generally can only find out by accident. I was lucky to. I…" What could he say? He found it by accident while running away from a hospital he'd ended up in because two men drugged him and raped him? No, Mum was never going to find out what he'd done on the streets. "It was an accident I found out. I don't…"

Overhead, a bell rang.

"What was that?" she asked, startled.

"Just the bell – classes are going to start, soon," Merlin said. "I'm reading the same things here as in Ealdor, it's really good, Mum. We get our own rooms, and we can train with our powers. There are so many other telekinetic kids here, they've started this tournament for it, called the Hover Games. I'm playing next week."

Another choked laugh. "I'm so glad to hear you're all right. I know Gaius – he's a good man. If you're in his hands, they're good hands to be in."

"It really is nice," Merlin said. "You'd like my friend Gwen – she controls plants. She manages all the flower gardens on the school almost single-handedly, and they're gorgeous. And her boyfriend Lance can fly, and we race all the time. And Morgana, she can see the future, and she's mean in a nice way, kind of like Will if he were a girl, but…"

He trailed off.

"How's Will?" he asked.

"He's…okay. Still in the wheel chair. Still needs physical therapy. But…I think he's getting better. Slowly."

"Does he…has he…said anything about…me? To you?"

She sighed. "No. He avoids me and this house, I only hear from him in short e-mails. He won't say anything about you. Have you tried his blog? Or that Facebook thing?"

"No Facebook," Merlin said. "I ended my account. And…I'm rather scared to see his blog."

"He doesn't really mention you much," Hunith said. "But he still supports mutants in general. When that idiot MP tried to propose legislation requiring all mutants to register no matter what – again – Will put up two whole posts raving against it."

Merlin smiled at the thought. He could see Will typing furiously in his room while swearing about everything that bugged him, the posh upper class and corrupt politicians and 'the budget being run by crackheads in suits' and any other number of things he went on about.

But just because Will still supported mutants didn't mean he'd forgiven Merlin.

"Just give him time, Merlin, you know how he is. Go …if you're still in classes, you shouldn't be late. Good luck. Call me soon."

"I will, Mum. I miss you, too. Bye."

He hung up and stared at the phone.  
He did know how Will really was, and that was what scared him most.

* * *

About a week later, Merlin had went shopping with Morgana and Gwen and Lance, and gotten some clothes (and had learned that shopping for clothes with Morgana was a bad idea) and he'd gotten supplies (and found that shopping for supplies with Gwen was a bad idea) and he'd even found some stuff to fix-up his iPod (and found that shopping with Lance for tech was a bad idea).

Next time, he'd go shopping on his own.

But still, Merlin was adjusting well to his new life, and he was settled into classes, too, and his room. He'd downloaded some open source manip programs onto one of the media center computers to play around with, and was already printing out his designs and taping them up on his walls, along with stuff he drew by hand, and his room was starting to look like it was actually his. He had settled nicely into his friendship with Gwen and Morgana and Lancelot, cosseted by Gwen's sweet guidance, Lance's easy camaraderie, and Morgana's oddly reassuring acerbic wit, reminding him of Will.

This place was starting to feel like home.

"That's good to hear, Merlin," Gwen said cheerfully when he'd told her as much on Friday night as over half the student body, all clad in pajamas, gathered in one of the larger lounges to watch a _Blackadder_ marathon.

"Your thoughts are happy, lately," Leon said as he cuddled up to Gwen.

She seemed to know him quite well.

"Her family lives on mine's estate," Leon said as Merlin let his confusion swirl around his head. "Gwen and Elyan – Elyan's her brother – went to Camelot for a long time and then Mum found out I was a mutant and she heard about Camelot and knew Gwen and Elyan went to a Camelot so she sent me with Gwen and Elyan – before Elyan left, of course, he's too old, now, but back then I went with both."

Gwen rolled her eyes, wrapping Leon in a blanket as Lance wrapped himself around her.

"Elyan's in uni, right now," she said. "But yeah, his Mum basically sends him with us and tells us – just me, now – to watch out for him. So I do. Right, Leon?"

Leon nodded, then said, "John has it, he's going to give it to Lee."

Gwen cursed and ran off to two other students to get whatever it was she wanted, and Merlin rolled his eyes. Morgana just sighed morosely as she went off after Gwen, and Merlin frowned after her in confusion.

"I don't know," Leon answered. "She can shield her thoughts from me."

"She has a brother, too," Lance answered quietly.

"Really? I thought it was just Morgause," Merlin said, looking over to where Morgana's sister was trying to round up fellow students, little sparks and lines of electricity escaping her fingers as she tried to get the rowdier ones to settle down, glaring them all down with her oddly-reassuring firmness. A year older than Morgana, she was 'teaching' at the school for a year as she waited for Morgana to graduate so they could go off to university together. She was sharp and tough, but she helped kids make leaps and bounds in learning to harness their powers – including Merlin. She was scary as fuck but in a good way, and that was about the most anyone truly knew about her.

"They're full sisters – from what I know, this brother is her half-brother…something about an affair between their parents, I don't know. Said half-brother is a mutant. Said half-brother's dad is very anti-mutant and has forbidden Morgana from talking to him. I know she still does but it's not often…I don't think she likes the situation," Lance said, shrugging a little helplessly. "That's about all I know."

Merlin frowned. "Wait, if the brother's a mutant and the dad-"

"That's why she doesn't like it," Lance said. "I think."

Merlin nodded, opting to turn back to look at the large screen instead of Morgana.

He supposed he could at least be glad he was still able to talk to his mother whenever they wanted and both had some free time. Merlin had chatted with her just this morning.

Now if only he could work up the guts to talk to Will.

Shaking his head, trying to shift away from his abruptly dark thoughts, Merlin settled into his beanbag and focused on the show. He'd think about all this later, when it was just a little less painful. For now he'd wait for the show to start so Leon would stop staring at him and go back to snuggling, whenever Gwen came back.

"Good plan," Leon said, and snuggled up to Merlin instead.

* * *

"Gwaine!" Merlin cried out a few days later in the hallway, running up to the man, who turned around and smiled at him.

"Hey, kid, how've you been?"

"Brilliant," Merlin said, not caring if he had his 'doofus grin', as Will had called it, on his face. "You? Are you staying?" Suddenly, he felt…oddly apprehensive. He was still mad at Gwaine, and barely knew him!

Gwaine sighed. "Well…it's not like I've got anything better to do, so I might as well stay…even if it does mean being locked in fucking _castle_ with a couple hundred teenagers...and nothing to drink…"

Merlin let the relief show on his face.

"You seem oddly invested in me being here," Gwaine commented as they made their way down the hall – most probably towards the kitchen.

"Just…well, it's not exactly safe for mutants out there, anymore, is it?" Merlin tried.

Gwaine shook his head ruefully. "So you heard, then?"

"Who hasn't?" Merlin asked.

It was true – who hadn't heard about the latest round of mutant riots, of shoot-outs and bombings between the pro-mutant Knights of Medhir and anti-mutant Dark Knights. It was war between the two, as pro- and anti-mutant locations all over the country went up in flames.

"So you want me to stay here and safe?" Gwaine asked wryly. "I thought you hated me."

Merlin's face fell. "I'm…okay, I've moved you from 'hate' to 'moderate dislike'."

"And the 'moderate dislike' category warrants your concern?"

"…yes?"

The man laughed. "You really are too good for your own good."

"Hey!" Merlin scowled, but without much bite. He liked being in the school, safe, and a good person. Bad people may run the world, but good people kept it from falling apart (at least according to Will, before whining that if he wanted to become PM one day he'd have to be a bad person, and Merlin would usually promise to make sure he's only just bad enough and- no, he should stop thinking like this).

Gwaine shrugged. "Well – I'm staying mostly as security, checking around at night and stuff. According to Gaius, one half is about making sure no one is trying to hurt you kids and the other half is making sure you kids aren't causing trouble."

Merlin laughed. "Well, I already said, I'm not much of a troublemaker or anything…I'll try not to add to it."

Gwaine shook his head ruefully and pulled into the kitchen. "Thanks, I guess. That's only part of my job, though – the other part is actually somewhat of an honorary teaching position."

Merlin looked at him surprise. "Teaching?"

The man nodded. "Some kids started a 'self defense' club or something, for kids who have physical mutations and aren't sure how to work in their extra body parts into martial arts. It's a bit half-arsed…but I can still impart some deeper knowledge onto future generations."

Merlin grinned. "Sounds good."

"I take it you won't bother attending?" Gwaine asked wryly as some biscuits floated down from one of the cupboards.

"I might…I'll just watch," Merlin added. "Me and sport of any kind…we don't mix."

Gwaine laughed, grabbing one of the biscuits from midair. "Do what you want, kid. You're safe in here, anyway."

Merlin grinned at the thought. "Yeah…we are."

* * *

Sorry for the lack of Arthur. He'll show up in the next chapter, promise! In the mean time, have some bb!Leon. :P

On that note, I think I'll start chapter previews. Do you guys like it when authors put in previews of their upcoming chapters, or not?

Here's my **preview for the next chapter:**

_Merlin should really know better by now than to go shopping with Morgana, but he supposes he'll learn - or he would, except he has some big news from Gaius. And Arthur has some from Uther, as well - news which will soon change the world._

So, should I start adding in previews or is that a no-go? Either way, comment!** Comment and let me know, both on the previews and the chapter itself! :D**


	7. Vene Vidi Visa

**_Beside Me: 1.4 - Vene Vidi Visa  
_**

* * *

**A/N:** To distract me from my Big Bang.

* * *

**No beta, as I have no patience to speak of. :P**

* * *

As promised in the brochure Gaius had given Merlin as a rundown of the school, on the weekend older students were allowed out into the local village whenever they wanted, and even younger students went in groups with the teachers.

The village was surprisingly nice about it all.

"They really don't mind several dozen teenage mutants wandering in every weekend?" Merlin asked as they approached some sort of super-surprise clothing boutique of some kind (with the look on Morgana's face at the mere mention of it he was already wary).

"Some old timers have a problem with the 'teenage' bit but otherwise, yeah, they don't mine," Lancelot said.

"They used to," Gwen said. "There's all sorts of stories about them trying to stop the 'mutant school' when Camelot was being founded. But over the years they sort of realized just how false their perceptions of mutants are. Now they don't mind – a lot of Camelot graduates even move back here, so a lot of their neighbors are mutants, now, too."

"It helps that this is cheap labor," Morgana added wryly, vaguely gesturing to where Gili, another telekinetic, was standing before a shop changing out the letters on a tall sign at the direction of an old woman beside him. "How a lot of us get money, odd jobs every weekend for a few pounds here and there. And, here we are – Avalon Apparel," she added when they reached what looked like an ivory tower that could have belonged to Camelot's architecture, had it been a Disney film.

"It's run by an old Class II Camelot alumni," Gwen said, with a slight giggle as Lancelot tried to edge away from the store. "She designs the much of the clothing she sells. Her name is Sophia, but her alias is Sidhe."

Merlin could why she'd name herself after a fairy.

"I'm Sophia," the woman with auburn hair streaked with neon pink, sparkling eyes, and sodding _iridescent dragonfly wings_ greeted him with.

"Um," Merlin said. "Hi, I'm…Merlin."

She raised a curious eyebrow. "As in your alias?"

"As in my mother read too much," Merlin said, deadpan. "My alias is Warlock."

She smiled.

"Well, I named myself after a type of old fairy, so I can't really complain about names," she said.

"Why are we here? I already have some clothes," Merlin asked of Morgana, holding up his shopping bag as proof. "What's so special about this place?"

"Take a look around and see for yourself," Sophia said with a wink, before promptly flying up the middle of the open space in the tower, between multiple clothing lines with more designs hanging off them, to another floor, landing over the railing and helping out another customer, a human village resident who was completely unsurprised by Sophia and her wings.

Merlin did as she said, and quickly noticed an odd pattern to many of the clothes, which seemed to be based off other designs, but…different.

"A lot of mutants have physical mutations rather than powers or anything like that," Gwen said. "So she designs clothing for them – like a lot of her shirts are backless, or have those weird slits? For her wings."

Merlin quickly noticed, seeing hats with protrusions for eyestalks, fashionable jeans with cuts for tails, clothing created with extra limbs in mind, everything. Designer level clothes like Prada and Armani (Merlin _did_ know something about clothes, thank you very much! He _could_ read labels!) were mixed with Sophia's own designs. Merlin saw Jonas, a boy with a tail, perusing some trousers with what appeared to be an extra leg, a thin one – a way for the tail to be warm and covered, too.

"Wow," Merlin murmured. Clothing for mutants. It seemed – it wasn't normal. Muties didn't get anything just for them.

But he'd just come from a school for mutants, in a village that was highly tolerant and even accepting of mutants, and in a store that sold clothing designed and catered with mutants in mind.

It was…mindblowing, that someone would really care about mutants like this.

"…so definitely want to aim for something stretchy, if she's the active type, and this blue will go with her hair style," Sophia finished rattling off to the old lady when they reached the third floor, browsing.

"Thank you, dearie," the old lady said as she picked out some shirts which were probably not for her. "She'll love these."

"If you tell the clerk these are for someone's birthday, he'll give you a special gift-bag and receipt to match," Sophia said cheerfully, before turning to Merlin and Morgana. "So, Morgana – what does this one need?"

"I don't think I have the money," Merlin said, because Morgana had already paid for the rest of his clothes and he couldn't let her pay more and he didn't miss the price tags on these clothes (even the "student discount" prices).

"I do," Morgana said cheerfully. "Merlin's power is the ability to absorb other people's powers and copy it into his DNA – but it's a painful process, and it's one he can't control, so he can't touch other mutants skin-to-skin. Obviously a bit problematic in a mutant school." Sophia nodded, taking in his long coat, his gloves, his scarf, everything. "Think you can still make him gorgeous without baring his skin?"

"He doesn't need my help," Sophia said with a cheerful wink to Merlin, which made him blush as she continued with, "But yes, definitely – now, come along, you."

Which was how Merlin ended up spending the next hour getting himself prodded, asked a million questions about his preferred clothing style, and measured to death. He was vaguely worried about the excessive Harry Potter references in his life when reminded of the scene in the first book with the space between Harry's nostrils getting measured, and promptly shouted, "You don't need to measure that!" when her hands were getting just a _little_ too close to his crotch.

She sighed. "Fine, fine, be that way." She turned to Morgana. "I have plenty of things I can tailor to him – come by next weekend?"

"You know it," Morgana said.

"Good, and – _oi_, Lance! I spent hours setting that up!"

Merlin looked up to see Lance had gotten himself tangled among the clothing lines while drifting around as Gwen browsed the store.

"Why are all men so _stupid_?" Sophia asked, before launching up to deal with it.

Morgana shook her head, and Gwen just smiled at Merlin in a way that made him want to run to the electronics shop down the street and hide, preferably without Lance there to give long analytical reviews of each piece of tech inside it.

He started to back away as she and Morgana approached, abandoning Lance to Sophia's mercies above them.

"Now, about your hair…"

* * *

Merlin managed to escape having his hair dyed rainbow or blue or red or whatever it was Morgana tried.

Barely.

He was _never_ going shopping with them ever again.

(He knew he said that last week, but this time he _meant_ it!)

"You'll go with us again," Morgana promised with an evil smile as they stood watching as Gwaine tried to surreptitiously disguise the big case of beer he just bought to be able to get into the school.

"Should we tell him that Oswald can create illusions and attach them to objects?" Gwen asked. "And that he helps kids sneak stuff in all the time?"

"Nah," Morgana said. "Let's see if he can sneak them into the school without help. Besides, Oswald charges for it."

Merlin just sighed. He was doomed.

They trekked back up to the castle as darkness closed in, and Merlin grumbled, "I mean it, I'm never going shopping with you again."

Morgana smirked, Gwen laughed, and Lance just sighed.

"Yes, you are," Morgana promised. "I've already Seen it. You're going to look brilliant – Sophia's going to do a real number with you."

"I refuse," Merlin said deadpan. "I like having my sanity intact…"

"Don't bother, Merlin," Lance said. "I think even a Class V wouldn't be able to resist her. Just go with it."

"I'm fairly certain a Class V would kill itself and her before _shopping_ became an issue," Merlin said. "Though admittedly ending my own life as a violent mini-supernova of self-destruction is starting to seem like more and more of an attractive option."

Morgana just laughed, and Gwen rolled her eyes, and Lance said, "Better you than me, mate. I'm done being their giant dress-up doll."

"What on earth gave you the impression we were finished with you?" Morgana asked, and Lance gulped and promptly shot up in the air.

"Hey!" Merlin shouted after him. "Don't leave me alone with them!"

"Sorry!" Lance shouted over his shoulder, and as Gwen and Morgana both slung an arm over his shoulders, trapping him between them, he sighed.

He was _really_ doomed.

* * *

Arthur winced as the car neared his home, but otherwise showed no reaction.

That didn't stop Kay from catching it, though. "What's the matter with you, then?"

With a large sigh, Arthur leaned back in the seat of his friend's car, careful to angle his back away from Kay and the other bloke and the two girls with them. While his jackets and shirts were specially designed with padding to make sure that people wouldn't feel his deformed back even if they were pressed right up against it, he still got nervous at people going near his mutant appendages.

But luckily, a few well placed lies and rumors kept people understanding and uninterested.

"Latest round of surgeries," Arthur said, because he did have a slightly unusually thick-looking back and why was that, Arthur? Oh, a spinal defect. Don't look too closely, the scars are horrendous, from the defect and the surgeries to fix it, and after the defect is fixed it'll take more surgery, plastic surgery, to make them go away.

(Luckily, people believed it).

"Back still a little sore," he added.

"Oh, you poor thing," Kay's flavor of the week said, laying a probably-supposed-to-be-comforting-but-r

eally-just-annoying hand on his shoulder – way too close to his back, his wings.

"It's all right," Arthur said wanly, as they approached his house, gently removing her hand, like the gentleman that he _was_. Just because he was a mutant didn't mean he had to be barbaric.

"Get better," she said after Kay dropped him off outside his house, and Arthur waved them off before practically running to the living room, and ripping off the custom padded shirt, and finally stretching his wings.

They'd been cramping since morning, him having gone a full three days with them bound tightly to his back, and he sighed in relief as he pulled the thin, flat chords away and stretched out his strained muscles in the living room.

He hated having to actually _maintain_ his defects, but they were muscles and they could atrophy. But he got by on as little as possible.

(Or he was supposed to, anyway.)

Arthur looked down the length of his wings at his side as he pulled them in and out, the careful set of exercises worked out to keep them functioning without overdeveloping the muscle and making them more noticeable. (Arthur wondered if he should mention to the doctor he was able to fly…but the doctor talked to Uther and- no, he wasn't going to mention it).

It took only a few months for them to fully form after they started appearing, but since then they've grown tremendously, nearly spanning the living room when he stretched them out.

"Arthur?"

Arthur immediately snapped his wings close to his body, but it was too late – Father stood in the doorway to the living room, not even hiding the disgust on his face from seeing the wings.

"Must you do that in the living room?" Uther asked with a sigh.

"Sorry, Father, I just…they've been aching all day," Arthur said, feeling guilty as he quickly strapped his wings back in and pulled the shirt on. Within moments, he looked normal again, human, real.

(Because he wasn't real with wings. People with wings were only in stories, in myths, they weren't real, so Arthur wasn't real, not with wings, no, he wasn't, he wasn't, he _wasn't_.)

Uther Pendragon smiled at him. _Smiled. At him._ "Well, you won't have to be dealing with them for much longer," he said, as Arthur picked up his school bag and fished out the leftover crisps he had from school, turning away to go up to his room. Homework, so much damnable homework. "If all goes well, you won't even be dealing with them for another month."

That made Arthur freeze, before slowly turning to face Father.

"You mean…?"

Father grinned outright. "The cure has finally been stabilized. You will be rid of those things by the end of the month, Arthur."

Yes!

(_Yes._)

"That's brilliant!" Arthur cried out, before dropping his school bag again as Father actually _hugged_ him with one arm.

He was finally going to be a whole human being again.

He was going to be Uther's son again.

"It is!" Uther said. "I've already ordered some takeaway to celebrate tonight – I know you have a big test tomorrow, so we'll go out and celebrate with a proper dinner on Friday, hm?"

"Of course, Father," Arthur said, stepping back, not bothering to fight down the big, happy grin on his face. "I just…it's really? The cure is finished?"

Uther nodded. "Fully and completely stabilized for Classes I, II, and III. Class IV is still a little shaky, though, but it can be administered fairly safely, and it won't be long until it's stabilized for them, too."

"And Class V?"

Uther rolled his eyes. "There are no Class V's left, Arthur – their power is too great, and they've all killed themselves with the force of their own power. They cure themselves, really."

"Right, sorry, just…" Arthur didn't finish, shrugging it off instead. He was a Class I, physical mutation only. What did it matter?

(Morgana was a Class III – but Father said that was cured, too…and she probably wanted to stay sick, anyway, and Morgause probably would, too.)

Finally, after eight years of being a mutant, it was coming to an end. He was going to get rid of his wings.

(No, his _deformities_! Those appendages!)

He was finally going to be cured.

* * *

Merlin jittered a little nervously outside Gaius's office, staring down at the small summons note in his hand as he waited, wondering what was going on to be called here before classes had even started for the day. Did he break some rules he didn't know about? The academy wasn't particularly strict at all, but maybe there was something-

The door opened.

Gaius was escorting another student out, saying jovially, "I do not want to have to ban you from the media room again!"

The bloke nodded, blushing slightly and saying, "Sorry, sir, I'll fix it next time, I promise," and rushed off.

Gaius's countenance saddened a little as he gestured Merlin in, which was far from reassuring. They both sat down, and Gaius pulled up Merlin's medical file.

"As you likely remember, I took some of your blood to examine your DNA and take a better look at your powers," Gaius said. "And your genetic code, overall. I have some good news – no STD's or anything else to worry about. But..."

"This doesn't sound good," Merlin said, nervously, looking at the closed medical file. Was something wrong with his powers? Or was there some other genetic…_thing_…going on? Maybe some disease unrelated to mutant DNA?

"It depends on your definition, at this point," Gaius said.

Merlin frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Gaius sighed heavily before he spoke.

"Merlin – do you understand the system of Classes, one through five, for dividing powers?"

"Um, it's logarithmic or something? One is minor mutations which don't really give you much of a power and five is theoretically limitless power? Class II's and III's are the most common, and there are no more Class V's left."

An odd expression passed on Gaius's face, but it was gone before Merlin could read it.

"In crude terms, yes," Gaius said. "I am a class II, capable of extensive healing and mutant-level photographic memory. Gwaine is a Class III, for reasons best left to him. Guinevere is a Class II, while Morgana is also a Class III."

Merlin nodded. He kind of figured all their powers would be roughly around that level.

"What am I?"

"I will cut to the point, Merlin," Gaius said. "You are a Class V."

* * *

This marks the end of Chapter 1. Next week I will not be updating this fic. (I may post something else, circumstances permitting).

Week after, I shall post the beginning of Chapter 2: Home Invasion. :)

**Reviews are loved!**


	8. Class V

**_Beside Me: 2.1 - Class V  
_**

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry for the lateness, especially after having not posted last week! D: But, here it is now. This chapter may have to be posted on alternate Saturdays instead of every Saturday consistently as I study for some upcoming tests, and for that, I am truly sorry. I hope you will bear with me! And in the mean time, here is this week's chapter:!

* * *

**Beta'd by the lovely _Moiraes_. Thank you for the beta'ing, especially with how last-minute it was! :D  
**

* * *

_Gaius sighed heavily before he spoke._

"Merlin – do you understand the system of Classes, one through five, for dividing powers?"

"Um, it's logarithmic or something? One is minor mutations which don't really give you much of a power and five is theoretically limitless power?"

"In crude terms, yes," Gaius said. "I am a Class II, capable of extensive healing and mutant-level photographic memory. Gwaine is a Class III, for reasons best left to him. Guinevere is a Class II, while Morgana is much rarer Class IV."

Merlin nodded. He kind of figured all their powers would be roughly around that level.

"What am I?"

"I will cut to the point, Merlin," Gaius said. "You are a Class V."

* * *

No!

_You are a Class V._

Merlin's blood ran cold. He could feel the ice slowly spread through his veins, his lungs, his muscles, as that sunk in. He was frozen.

Because…that wasn't…that's not…

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I can't…there has to be…t-to be some mistake!" he cried out.

Gaius shook his head. "I'm afraid not, my boy. I checked multiple times."

As Merlin stared in shock, Gaius continued on with his explanation.

"When I had looked into your powers and started into the codes that would allow you to absorb other mutants' powers, I had assumed there would be a limit of some kind – either on the number of powers you could absorb, or amount of the powers you could utilize. There isn't one. There are no limits on your DNA, Merlin."

Here, Gaius paused, seeming to sort through something mentally before continuing.

"I knew your father well, Merlin. And he was well known among mutant research circles. And knowledge of his telekinetic powers, including how much power he had, is also well known. As you said, at the age of six, you were able to move yourself and your friend onto a school roof. I am fairly certain that even as an adult, this was a bit of a task for your father. I believe that over time, your DNA has not only fully encoded the ability, but expanded on it."

"You're…you're saying my power made his power…it _grew_?" Merlin yelled out in alarm. How was that even possible?

Gaius nodded.

"Your powers grew, and your DNA code has no limit to how much power you can absorb – it's infinitely adaptive. If you meet enough mutants, you could theoretically have every power in existence – and more so, as they expand."

Merlin shook his head. "That…that's not…I'm just me. I'm not…"

"This does not have to be a bad thing-"

"What else can it be?" Merlin cried out, staring in despair. "There aren't any other known Class Vs left! All the existing ones have blown themselves up-"

"No, Merlin, they haven't," Gaius said, sternly. "Movies, television programs, popular books – they all rely on stereotypes, remember that. Yes, many Class Vs often lose control and become their own downfall. However, just as many gain control over their powers and become great assets for mankind and have proven quite helpful towards the human race as a whole."

"And all of them are _dead_," Merlin said. "They were killed!"

Gaius sighed. "All of the older ones, yes. Many mutants were killed in the Gene Riots, Merlin. However, there are likely other Class Vs in existence, even if they do not choose to make themselves publicly known. And even if not, others will eventually be born – it is only a matter of time, now."

But that didn't change the fact that for right now, he was the only known Class V in existence.

"This can be a good thing, Merlin, a very good thing," Gaius said. "You have said as much, that you like to help people. That is exactly what you can do with this kind of power, if you so choose. And, this has no relation to your skill as an artist, Merlin, remember that – that is entirely your own talent."

Merlin shut his eyes and dropped his head. Right. Like being a Class V _didn't change everything_.

"Merlin," Gaius said sternly. He reached over to touch his shoulder, and Merlin flinched away.

He had seen Merlin's DNA – didn't he realize how dangerous going near him was?

"Take the day off."

He blinked.

"What?"

"Take the rest of today off, relax, and give yourself time to process things," Gaius said. "I knew your reaction wouldn't be the best, but this was a little more than I had anticipated. Spend the rest of the day indulging in your art and maybe finishing some schoolwork later if you feel up to it. But for now, you need to accept this fully. This is not something that will go away by ignoring it. This level of power can be managed – it just has to be approached in a different manner than normal."

Merlin swallowed. "Approached?"

"In how we study your powers and teach you to control them," Gaius said.

Merlin looked at Gaius desperately and felt his chest tightening as he did so. "Why me?"

"…you were not 'picked' for this, Merlin, it is simply the course of nature-"

"That's easy for you to say, you're only a Class II!" Merlin shouted.

There was stunned silence, before he shut his eyes, his body trembling. "I'm sorry, I-"

"It's quite all right, Merlin," Gaius said affectionately. Merlin heard him come around to stand behind him, and a moment later, felt a warm hand through the shirt on his shoulder. "We will manage this, I promise you. For now, get some rest. Tomorrow, you will continue with your classes. And eventually, we will form a plan as to how best to deal with your powers – but that can come later."

Merlin nodded and opened his eyes to stare at the grain of the wood of Gaius's desk.

Why him?

* * *

"You look terrible," was what Gwaine greeted him with down in the kitchen.

Merlin just blinked at him, before nodding in agreement and turning towards one of the cupboards amid Gwaine's usual grumbles about the lack of alcohol on campus.

He was a Class V. He was…Class Vs were abnormal even among mutants. They were too powerful for their own good. They collapsed on themselves, lost control of their powers, and died.

Merlin didn't want to collapse on himself. He didn't want to lose control of his powers again.

And he didn't want to die.

"Merlin?" he heard Gwaine ask. "You alright?"

"I…" Merlin paused, clutching a cupboard door in his hand, tightly. "No."

He knew he sounded like he had been crying, as that was exactly what he had been doing on the way from Gaius's office to here.

"That…" Gwaine sighed. "Take a seat, make a snack, and tell me what's going on."

Merlin nodded, sitting down and levitating some things from various parts of the kitchen into a sandwich, before splitting it in half between himself and Gwaine, and getting them each a Coke and a bag of crisps to go with it. Gwaine watched, somewhat bemused, especially when Merlin made the sandwich land in his hands instead of on his plate.

"Gaius just told me what he found about my powers," Merlin said, not touching his food as Gwaine ate. "I'm a Class V!"

There was silence, and at the edge of his vision, he saw Gwaine set down the sandwich.

"That's…that's pretty big," he said.

"Yeah," Merlin said hoarsely, putting his elbows on the table and resting his head in his hands. "Gaius made me take the day off to deal with it."

"Well…I can imagine you would need it. This is big stuff to deal with," Gwaine said, patting Merlin's shoulder somewhat awkwardly.

"Yeah," Merlin said again, staring down at his sandwich.

"Are you going to say something besides 'yeah' over and over again?" Gwaine asked.

Merlin smiled in spite of himself. "No."

Gwaine laughed a little, patting Merlin's shoulder again.

They both looked to their respective sandwiches again.

"Eat," Gwaine commanded, pushing Merlin's plate towards him. "You're too skinny."

"Why does everyone always say that?" he asked, even as he warily picked up the sandwich.

"Because it's true," Gwaine said glibly.

Merlin glared, but bit into the damned thing, and Gwaine grinned. "That's the spirit!"

Merlin just glared even more, and Gwaine laughed.

But by the time he finished his sandwich, he didn't feel so bad.

* * *

"Mum?"

"Merlin?"

"Mum…"

"Merlin, what's going on? Your voice-"

"Mum, I…I…"

"What's wrong, sweetie?"

"…Gaius did some tests on some of my blood to find out more about my DNA…"

"That's good, isn't it?"

"…I'm a Class V, Mum."

"…"

"Mum?"

"Oh, Merlin…"

* * *

Merlin was huddled in a corner of the media room, checked-out laptop resting on the arm of his sofa as he created wallpaper after wallpaper, most of them grungy and depressing. Not his usual type. He didn't care what it meant.

Just as he was finishing up a 'moonlit ghetto night' type wallpaper, Leon popped up in front of him.

"They look nice, even if they are depressing," Leon said. "And, you'll be fine. A lot of Class Vs were-"

"Leon!" Merlin hissed, looking around him frantically. The nearest person was three metres away and too focused on her own laptop to have heard them, likely. Hopefully.

"She's not listening, she reading a e-mail her boyfriend sent her and trying to look for clues that he's cheating her on," Leon said, pulling himself onto the sofa to plop by Merlin. "So, do you want to be telepathic?"

Merlin blinked at the nonsequitur. "What?"

"You can absorb powers," Leon said. "So you can be telepathic. Then you can read my mind, I can read yours, and we can talk to each other and stuff."

Merlin frowned in confusion, but Leon answered before he'd even formed the question properly in his head. "I can hear other people's thoughts, but they can't hear mine. I can project my thoughts into Morgana's head, and a few other kids with powers that have to do with their minds and brains and stuff, but most of them are boring or mean and it's really hard and gives me headaches if I do it too long. But if you can just read my mind like I read yours, then neither of us get headaches. And you're nice. And fun."

Merlin sighed and quickly brought up the memories of the times he absorbed powers, and Leon winced slightly, before sighing and nodding.

"Well, you wanted to show Gaius, anyway – when you do, just find me…and no, I'm not too young."

Merlin rolled his eyes.

"And, you need to come with me," Leon said. "When you're done."

Merlin frowned in a second round of confusion. Why?

"You know how when you came here, Gaius mentioned you weren't the only one who, um, prostituted yourself?"

Merlin shut his eyes. Dear god, this kid was ten. He should barely know what sex was.

"I've known what sex was all my life. People think about it a lot. I know a lot of things most grown-ups don't think I should about."

Did this kid ever stop?

"No."

He really wanted the kid to stop.

"I will, but not yet," Leon said. "Anyway, I know who the other person is. I don't think she'd mind talking to you. I already told her someone else in the school did the same thing, just didn't say who. You guys could use someone to talk to, and you don't want to talk to Gaius, so maybe you should try each other."

This kid was creeping him out.

"I do that a lot. Only Morgana never gets creeped out."

She was creepy, herself.

Leon grinned at that. "I know – isn't she awesome?"

That was one word for it.

Leon stuck his tongue out at Merlin, before saying, "Well, you're done with your wallpaper set, anyway! Just post it and come with me."

Merlin sighed – why the hell was he taking orders from an ten year old, again? – and complied.

"Because you want to meet someone else who shares the one secret you still have that no one else in the school does. Well, one more, anyway…"

_Stop it._

"Later."

* * *

Leon wandered up to the common room decorated predominantly in yellows and blacks – the Hufflepuff lounge. Merlin followed somewhat hesitantly as Leon led him to a pale brunette in the back.

The little boy went right up to the girl and tugged on her sleeve. "Freya! This is the other guy I told you about!"

…Leon was really damn blunt. Merlin wondered if it was just his nature or it came from the mind reading.

"Both," Leon said to Merlin, as Freya, wide-eyed, set her book aside to slowly look up at him.

"And no one else is around," Leon added, before promptly walking off. Well, almost, as at the last second, he turned sharply to go sit next to some bloke who appeared to be staring catatonically at a letter in his hands.

Merlin gingerly sat by Freya on the sofa, opposite of her but close enough that they could keep their voices low and still hear each other.

"…this is weird," Merlin said finally, to which he nodded. He needed to break the ice, somehow. "I…what do we talk about, exactly?" She shrugged. "…are you going to say anything?"

"Sorry," she mumbled.

Icebreakers were definitely in order.

Merlin sighed, holding out his hand. "Let's start fresh – I'm Merlin, Merlin Emrys."

She gingerly held out her hand and shook his. "I'm Freya Bastet. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too…" Merlin said, then once again found himself at an awkward pause. He sighed. "This is still…"

"…better than talking about what we've been through to Gaius?" she offered.

Merlin nodded.

"I guess we can start…with what we've been through. Would that usually be how a therapist deals with it?"

She smiled, blushing, in amusement.

"What's your story?" he asked simply.

"It's not pleasant," she said.

"…neither is mine," he said. And he told her his story. About growing up, about Will, about running away, and his part in what he did.

She told him her story. How she could turn into animals after touching them, how she couldn't control it in her sleep. How her family rejected her and cast her out upon finding out she was a mutant. How, once on her own, she resorted to selling her body when she could, sometimes turning body parts into different animal parts as an advertising feature, on her own journey to get to Camelot once she heard of it on the streets of Cardiff.

Until came along the man who raped her and tried to kill her, Halig – who she'd accidentally killed out of terror.

It took the work of various women's protection, sexual assault prevention, and mutant protection groups to fight for her. It was through almost sheer luck she was allowed to come to Camelot and finish her education instead of being shipped off to prison for life for using her mutant power to hurt someone else.

"Oh, Freya," Merlin said, offering his hands for her to hold onto tightly. "I want to hug you so badly."

She paused for a moment before reaching into her bag and taking out a large sweatshirt. She slipped it on over her frame, thin enough to rival Merlin's, and pulled up the hood, tugging the hood-cords tight.

Merlin drew her close to him instantly, the two wrapping themselves around each other tightly.

* * *

"It's like something right out of Animorphs," Merlin said of her powers almost half an hour later, after a cathartic hug and even more cathartic conversation.

She smiled, then laughed, like she had forgotten how until then, and it was a beautiful sound.

* * *

Merlin was still a Class V and still had nightmares about Will, his life on the streets, and becoming a mutant power supernova that collapsed on himself and killed him, but by day, he managed to push past it.

Half the school suddenly thought he was dating Freya – despite many of them knowing he was gay – and how they came to this conclusion was beyond him. But it was okay, because neither of them were really interested in dating, anyway.

But a lot of that might have had to do with how protective Merlin was of Freya, now. And how they spent all their time together.

He even offered for them to share a room together – but she vehemently opposed that.

"I still have trouble controlling my power, especially when I'm asleep. I might change into a dangerous animal and hurt you – I asked Gaius to give my room an extra lock on it and a reinforced door for this."

However, Merlin did move into the room next to hers.

(And sometimes, they would appear before each other's room and hug each other and cuddle through the night, through nightmares, lots of them, both wearing sweatshirts and layers so they never hurt each other – and it was nice, really nice.)

* * *

There was one severe disadvantage of being in a school full of mutants – he couldn't touch anyone, skin to skin. And he missed the feeling.

Enough to take Leon up on his offer.

And, when Freya also offered to give him her power, he accepted.

* * *

They learned more about their powers, that week.

When Freya was in the shape of a cat, and Merlin touched her, nothing happened – he didn't absorb her DNA. After she returned to her human state, Merlin got her power by touching her, which Gaius seemed to find extremely important.

"What difference does it make?" Merlin grumbled as Gaius took all this down.

"It allows me to understand the level of presence of your genetic code depending on the state of your power," Gaius said carefully.

"It's for our good, Merlin," Freya said cheerfully.

Merlin also discovered that touching others while being an animal was okay – because in the infirmary, when Merlin was a mouse, Leon pet him for ten minutes and nothing happened, but the moment Merlin was more human than mouse-

-the kid was ten, but he certainly had one hell of a high pain tolerance.

Merlin watched miserably as Leon lay in his beside Merlin, trembling, as was Merlin, himself, while Gaius tucked them in and fussed over them, letting some monitors do all the work of keeping a scientific eye on them.

"I'm sorry," Merlin mumbled to him.

_No biggie,_ Leon thought. Merlin nearly jumped as he used this power, but he was supposed to. _At least now we can talk in our heads._

"Are you okay?" he asked Freya.

She nodded, smiling at him. "Now I'll have someone to practice with. And Gaius has more information."

Merlin nodded, glad at least of that – it hadn't meant too much to them to learn that Merlin could touch Freya while she was in an animal form and be unaffected, only gaining her power when she was a human, but Gaius seemed to find it important for both their powers.

Leon was just happy trying to have someone to 'talk' to.

And Merlin was happy to have two people he could finally touch.

When Freya was able to sit up again, she reached over, and took Merlin's hand in hers.

With a large sigh, Merlin enjoyed the feeling of skin on skin, something he'd had no experience with at all since coming to Camelot. Emboldened by them being able to touch, Freya climbed into his bed and the two hugged each other, holding onto each other and just enjoying the feeling of another human being.

* * *

Later that week, two people that he could touch became four (with plans for it to be five next week with Morgana).

Gwen and Lance sat on the bed across from Merlin as Gaius once again set up all the monitors on all three of them. Lance occasionally helped by moving things around. Merlin was too jittery, focusing on the weave of his arm warmers and the feeling of suppressing other powers with his own. Hopefully, in the process of touching them, he could suppress the absorbing power itself if he concentrated enough.

"Are you ready, Merlin?" Gaius asked gently, a hand on Merlin's knee.

Merlin bit his lip and nodded. It had nearly a week since he absorbed Freya and Leon's powers, but the memories of the pain never completely faded.

Gwen and Lance both held up their hands. They were going to find out whether things changed when absorbing two people's powers at once, and were hoping that 'overloading' him could trigger a self-protection instinct.

Merlin sincerely hoped so.

"Sorry," Merlin said as he held his hands above theirs.

"You haven't even touched us yet," Gwen said, though Merlin could hear the nervousness underneath.

"This is going to hurt," Merlin said. He pushed down on his powers, all of them, pushed down on _everything_, and then reached out and grabbed their hands

* * *

Ten minutes later, Gaius sighed as Merlin remained a trembling wreck on his bed, Gwen and Lance holding onto each other comfortingly.

"S-s-sorry," Merlin mumbled, shutting his eyes in exhaustion.

"It's all right, Merlin," Lance said, before reaching out and laying a hand on Merlin's shoulder. Merlin flinched, but relaxed, when Lance's fingers directly touched his shoulder. "Look, at least you don't have to worry about touching us, now, that's a plus!"

"That's the spirit, Lance," Gaius said encouragingly, before looking at Merlin again. "So absorbing more people's powers at once intensifies the pain. Do they seem to exemplify each other or simply add on to each other?"

"I dunno," Merlin said, wincing and slowly pushing himself up, still shivering. "It just…hurts more…"

"I'm really sorry," Gwen said earnestly.

"S'not your fault, s'mine," Merlin said.

"It's nobody's fault," Gaius said, before they could fall into this kind of pit again. "I've seen far too many mutants fall victim to popular culture's tendency to heap the blame for everything on them, and I'm not going to let that happen here, not on my watch." He looked between the three teenagers. "It just means we will have to try something different."

Merlin weakly nodded his head.

"Well, there's one more bright side," Gwen said. "Now you can help me with the gardening!"

Gratefully, Merlin smiled.

Gwen and Lance left, as there was minimal pain and it was easy to recover from on their end. Merlin stayed.

"So, no more than one power at a time?" Merlin said, his mood a little lower in the absence of his friends.

"Yes," Gaius said. "Overloading is likely a bad way to go about it."

* * *

But now that he had these powers, it was brilliant.

Merlin knew he wasn't helping dissuade all those rumors about him and Freya, but he couldn't help it – now that he could touch her, he and Freya clung onto each other all the time. And he cuddled up with Gwen during movie nights, and he and Lancelot mock-wrestled all the time, and Leon hung onto his hand at every opportunity, conversing between their minds.

He was a Class V mutant, with a dark past and foreboding future, but right now, he had his friends, and right now, that was enough for him.

* * *

Arthur took another soft and juicy bite of his steak as he leaned back in his seat, grateful for their private booth as he let his wings relax within the confines of his dinner jacket, just a little.

"You're making the cure public this weekend, then?"

"I'm announcing it, yes," Uther said. "It will actually be made available next week, starting Thursday or Friday. Probably Friday, knowing those idiots at the medical warehouses..."

Arthur let himself drift amidst his father's medical babble, imagining himself without wings. He wouldn't have to hold them in, clench them just to eat out!

(He almost wished they could have this meal at home, so he could let his wings out, before he remembered if he ate with his father, it didn't matter where they were, he would have to clench them close to himself.)

"-Morgana-"

Arthur's head snapped up at the mention of his half-sister's name.

"What about her?"

"I am thinking of contacting her, maybe after Halloween," Uther said. "To get her the cure."

"She won't want to be cured," Arthur said. Neither of the Gorlois sisters would.

"She will come around," Uther said. "Whatever she's scared of, once she sees the cure is fine, she will forget her fears."

_But she_ doesn't _fear the cure,_ Arthur nearly said. _She just likes being herself._

He didn't say that, however much he wanted to. For one, it would mean admitting that he still talked to her, and they'd already had to deal with Uther blocking out the Camelot IP addresses; trying to block out whatever else she was using would be problematic, whatever proxies she may or may not have had at hand.

But more importantly, Father didn't understand. He didn't understand the feeling of rightness when using a mutation, how it was like being yourself (how being human _wasn't_).

Morgana still held on to ideals of individualism. Arthur knew that being heir to a corporate empire meant he was never going to be himself either way - he could absolutely stand to be cured and be human again, to be Uther's son again.

In the real world, no one was ever themselves, anyway – so Arthur might as well become something better than himself, however little that was actually saying.

He was more than happy to.

(He was. There wasn't any other option. He _was_.)

* * *

**A/N:**Again, I apologize severely for the lateness, and that future parts of this chapter will also be late. D:

**Next Chapter, 2.2 - Cure:** Now that Merlin's had time to deal with it, being a Class V is...manageable. And as it turns out, getting powers means helping others with theirs, a perk Merlin certainly had never expected, but loved dearly. He could handle being a Class V...but when Pendragon Inc. releases a cure for mutantism, the question becomes, does he want to? He's not sure of himself or the answer, and apparently, neither is Arthur.

**Reviews are loved!**


	9. Talking Cure

**_Beside Me, Chapter 2.2 - Talking Cure  
_**

* * *

**A/N:** I was going to post this a little later today, but it's going to be a shit day so I'm posting it right now instead.

**Unbeta'd, due to extreme lack of patience. If you see any mistakes, feel free to tell me. :)**

* * *

**Warnings/Content: self-injury/self-mutilation, self-hatred, passing suicidal thoughts, a bit of heartbreak, minor violence  
**

* * *

He did not want to cry. He didn't. He was mature enough to handle this. He was above this, and he was better than this.

Slamming the door to his bedroom shut and ignoring the pictureframe that fell off the wall from the force, Arthur threw his backpack onto the bed and reminded himself one more of all of these things.

Then he said, "Damnit," grabbed the water glass off his bedside table, and threw it at the opposite wall.

The sound of breaking glass did little to ease the tight, tight knot of frustrationangerhatefear in his heart. Stupid Kay and his stupid girlfriend and stupid everyone.

With shaking hands, he yanked off his uniform jacket, then the shirt and undershirt, not knowing or caring if he tore it, and lastly pulled off the straps holding his wings tight to his body, before standing there, body vibrating in anger, just staring at himself in the closet mirror-door, his wings, his-

Save Father and a few select doctors and scientists (and Morgana), the only other person to find out about his wings had been his childhood nanny. Father had deemed Arthur too old for her years ago, but just before she'd left, she'd pulled him close and whispered to him, "You're beautiful, Arthur, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I don't care how old you get, you'll always be my angel."

Arthur stared at his wings, and thought to her, you were wrong. People always thought of angels as pretty and holy and shit, seeing them in cartoons and B-movies and medieval paintings. But no, this was real life, and in real life, he was a freak of nature and she was wrong. Two species melded together, limbs being that that did not belong. How many times had Father told him that mutation was a deviation in DNA? Something gone wrong, that's what Arthur was.

(Was it the wings? Or was it Arthur?)

(Why him?)

With a shout of rage, he raised his fists and slammed them into the glass, shattering his image, breaking it and breaking it again and breaking, breaking, breaking.

This time, the glass shattering helped bleed off some of the rage, though maybe that was just the anger leaving in the blood spilling out of his hands. He didn't care, though, because he only had to glimpse down to see the shards of mirror still mocking him, and abruptly turned away, still crying out, before falling down to his arse, legs splaying out as his knees fell out beneath the weight of his heavy heart, then just letting the weight carry him down more, falling back until he landed lying across the glass, hissing as it tore at his skin.

He lay there for a while, just breathing heavily and trying to let the anger leave with the blood seeping out of his skin and into his carpet, as he stared up at the ceiling.

The ceiling was blissfully blank, covered only in old glow in the dark stars from when they had first moved here, no glass or mirrors or pool parties to mock him, only badly mixed up constellations. He stayed there, staring up at his ceiling, until it was dark for them to properly glow, little pinpoints of phosphorescence.

He was still laying there when he heard Father shout from his doorway, "Arthur?"

* * *

"Okay," Gwen said later, as she and Merlin sat in the gardens together. "Let's start with something simple – flowers."

She held her hand above a bulb she had just pushed into the ground, and Merlin watched in amazement as suddenly, a sprout grew out of the ground, growing and growing, spreading small roots, and then there was a bud, and right before his eyes, it blossomed into a full flowered tulip.

"That's amazing!" Merlin said. He looked around himself at the gardens. "Why don't you do that for all these plants?"

She sighed. "With some plants, like trees, this works just fine. For others like flowers, making them grow faster will also make them die a little faster. So I have to balance it out, making them grow fast and strong without pouring in or taking so much energy that it ends up killing the plant…it's a bit like overwatering it."

Merlin nodded, and took a tulip bulb when she handed him one.

"Okay," she said. "Let's get started, then!"

* * *

Merlin was back on the bed shivering as Morgana sat on the opposite bed, pale and tense from pain but refusing to show it.

"You," Merlin muttered. "Are a much stronger person than I am."

She laughed. "I have it less than you, remember?"

Merlin nodded.

While the drawback made itself clear soon as she tried to manhandle him for the rest of the day, that night, Merlin let her power simmer in his veins as he went to sleep.

A scant few hours later, Morgana opened her door without surprise when he stood outside it, a trembling wreck.

"Did you see the plane crash?" Morgana asked quietly.

"No, I – I saw someone drowning," Merlin said, perched on the edge of her bed. "I don't even know who it was or where or-"

"May be nearby, the crash I saw was in the ocean," Morgana said.

"What do you do?"

"I tell Gaius in the morning," she said. "He can figure out who to alert to prevent it."

Merlin nodded. "No wonder you never get enough sleep."

She smiled sadly at him. "At least you can switch it off, remember?"

"Yeah," he said. "But I won't. Not until I help you."

When both he and Morgana nearly drowned themselves in tea and coffee the next morning, Gwen spent the day looking up meditation practices between classes, and eventually, he and Morgana went to bed, Merlin trying different things.

It took several days of them trying different techniques, but by the end of the week, Morgana came to Merlin in the morning and hugged him close and whispered in his ear, "Thank you."

That night, they both slept soundly. The next day, everything that came on the news was a surprise to Morgana, and she delighted in it.

* * *

Merlin even took Gaius' power. The old man had hooked himself and Merlin up to various monitors, then touched Merlin. Less than half an hour later, after checking on Merlin and telling him to sleep a little, he was puttering about the room muttering to himself, reading printouts from the monitors, and writing down other observations of the experience.

Merlin used a knife to slice open his palm, and with a little coaxing from Gaius, he sealed the thin cut completely, leaving not even a trace of a wound in the first place. It was tiny, and Gaius said he could heal much bigger things, and it was a start.

Gaius also said that eventually, Merlin's DNA would expand on the power, leaving him able to heal much bigger wounds than even Gaius could manage now.

Staring down at his palm, Merlin wondered if he could do the same for Will and his spine.

He tried not to be maudlin about it, but it became difficult when he called his mother that night, intending to tell her about the news powers he was getting and how things were going at the school.

It started out fine, when he told her of his new power, Mum giggling and saying, "Maybe you can be a doctor, then, and I can be your nurse and show your patients your baby pictures-"

"Mum!" Merlin protested, laughing. "If anything, my living will soon come in the form of face painting."

"Face painting?"

"Yeah, I've been co-opted, I'll be painting all the kids' faces on Halloween."

She laughed. "Like always, then?"

"Yeah," Merlin said, smiling. "I'll send you some pictures. I'm getting a new Facebook, soon, so I can even post them there for you."

"That would be lovely, Merlin," she said, before he heard their doorbell ring in the background.

"I'll go," Merlin said, teasing. "Leave you to your hot date."

"No, no," Mum said, as Merlin heard her moving about the house. "You can talk to him."

"Interviewing my future step-dad, then?" Merlin joked, despite knowing full well his mother had no intentions of marrying again anytime soon.

"Not quite," she said, then he heard muffled noises and voices, as she probably pressed the phone against her skin.

Then, he heard Will's voice on the phone, saying, "Er, hello? Hunith said I'm to speak to you, whoever this is…?"

Merlin sat there on his bed, stunned.

"…hel-_lo_?"

"…Will?" Merlin mumbled.

"Merlin?" Will cried out.

"You two need to talk," Mum said. "Please. For me."

He didn't hear where she went on that end, but for a while, there was silence.

Then, Will said, "Your mum says you're at a mutant school of some sort?"

"Umm…yeah," Merlin said. "It's – it's Camelot Academy."

Will sighed. "I know, I looked it up ages ago. I think I wrote something on it ages ago."

"You did?" Merlin asked.

"…I was thinking we should have sent you there sooner, until I remembered it was attacked, once," Will said, voice monotone and detached.

"Yeah, yeah…Mum says you're walking, now?"

"Two or three steps at a time," Will said. "Not exactly running sprints or marathons, now, am I?"

Merlin shut his eyes, flopping back on his bed. "I'm sorry."

"You better be," Will growled. "Do you know the team lost their last two games without me? I am not trying to be arrogant, Merlin, but they needed me-"

"I'm _sorry_!" Merlin cried out. "I am, I – I'm getting better, though, Will. I can control my powers and I'm even getting new ones!"

"…getting new ones?" Will asked.

"Yeah," Merlin said. "Between a bunch of my friends, I can now read minds, turn into small animals, control and move plant life and speed up and slow down their growth, have dreams of the future, heal people by touch, and fly."

There was silence, then, "Bloody hell!" Will said, tone saying he's forgotten momentarily that he hates Merlin. "You've been busy!"

An involuntary laugh burst out of Merlin. "You could say that. The girl who can dream the future, you'd love her. I told Mum if you were a girl, you'd probably be her. All cheerful and bitter at the same time and arguing over everything. And an unhealthy obsession with my wardrobe."

This time, the involuntary laugh came from Will, before he seemed to sober up again. "…you got new clothes, then? Your Mum said you didn't take yours."

"Yeah," Merlin said, voice quiet again as he remembered packing to run away. "There's a…there's his village near the school – it's like Hogwarts, the school's a castle, professors, House-based lounges, village nearby, it's brilliant. And in the village there's this mutant girl who used to go here and designs clothes, and tailors a lot of hers to mutants. She made a bunch of stuff for me so I don't have to wear too many thing and can still be completely covered up, so I don't touch another mutant skin-to-skin by accident."

"Sounds nice," Will said, voice oddly hoarse. "School for mutants, village…you sound…okay."

"I'm sorry," Merlin mumbled.

"That's not a bad thing," Will said, voice suddenly snappish, almost angry. "You know me better than that, Merlin."

"It's not – I am sorry, Will," Merlin said. "I – I saw your blog. I've been keeping updated on how you are."

"You shut down your Facebook and Twitter accounts," Will said. "And you haven't updated your blog since you left here. Or your DevArt."

Merlin tried not to feel touched that Will had checked up on his online presence.

"I know," Merlin said. "I'm – I'm getting a new Facebook soon. When I…when I…soon." _When I'm not scared anymore._ "This school has a network. I'mna be facepainting on Halloween, I can send you pictures. These little kids are all so sweet, and some of them have been through so much."

"I…I'm glad," Will said. "To hear you're all right." A pause. Then, "You're not going to paint a dick on anyone's forehead again, are you?"

For one brief moment, it was like old times again, as they laughed and laughed as they remembered the time some of the boys in their Year Eight class had managed to goad Merlin into painting dicks all over their faces – including Will.

Their laughter died off, and then Will said, "Your Mum also said you found out something about yours powers, but she wouldn't tell me what."

Merlin froze, feeling himself go cold.

"It's – it's nothing."

"Merlin," Will said.

"…Gaius, the doctor here – he says…he says I'm a Class V."

Silence.

Silence.

More silence.

"Will?"

"Fuck," Will said. "You- fuck!"

"I'm sorry," Merlin said again.

"Don't be!" Will snapped. "Just – don't be, all right?" He sighed. "How are your friends taking that, then, your new ones?"

"I haven't told them," Merlin said, hoping that would placate the hints of jealousy he could hear in Will's voice.

"But you're telling me?" Will asked bitterly.

"…they're not my best friends," Merlin said. "You are. Were."

"Are," Will said.

More silence.

"I'm…I'm glad to hear you're okay, Merlin," Will said. There was a slight bitterness to his voice. Merlin pondered telling Will about maybe being about to heal his spine one day, but then decided against it for now. He didn't know if he would, and he's hurt Will enough – getting his hopes up would only make things worse.

"Thanks," Merlin said. "I'm happy to hear you're getting better."

"…are you…are you going to come home at all?" Will asked. "For Christmas or anything?"

"I dunno," Merlin said. "I'm up in stupid Scotland, and…it's safe here."

"I hope you do," Will said. "The tree is going to turn out shit without you here."

Merlin smiled. "I'll…I'll try."

After a few more moments of inane chatter, Merlin hung up, needing to get his homework done and go practice meditating some more with Morgana, and flying with Lance.

That night, he signed up for a new Facebook, and within an hour of sending the friend request Will confirmed him, as Merlin started friending others from Camelot.

The next day, he saw Will's blog, celebrating talking to his friend again, and Leon came and sat curled up at Merlin's side, a warm ball of comfort and reassurance as Merlin read through the comments on the post before leaving a single "thanks" in response.

The next day, he updated his art blog and DevArt. It was just a sketch of the school, but he ambiguously called it 'Camelot'.

By nightfall, Will had left his comment, _Fucking hell it _is_ Hogwarts!_, and Merlin nearly cried as he laughed. Will hadn't called again or said anything else, but this – this was most definitely a start. And a good one.

* * *

Father had spent the last hour looking after Arthur. He'd pulled Arthur carefully up, taken him to the bathroom to pull the glass out of his back and wings and cleaned off the blood and lathered layers of liquid bandage over everything, before sending Arthur to his own bed to sleep, or at least lay their quietly while he called someone in to clean up the mess in Arthur's rooms.

He'd lain in the dark curling the pillows as he heard the sound, heard Father tell some late-night cleaning service about Arthur tripping and slamming headfirst into the mirror. He clutched the pillows tighter in to his chest as he heard the glass cleared away, the scrubbing of the carpet, Father's thanks.

Once they were gone, Arthur was sat on the couch, holding a sushi plate in front of him with some Japanese beer father got on his last business trip sitting on the tea table.

Father was seated beside him, quietly making his way through his own sushi and beer, waiting until he was halfway through before saying, "So what brought this on, then?"

Arthur sighed. "It's…it's stupid."

"Tell me," Father said quietly, taking another bite of his sushi.

"…Kay's girlfriend is holding some stupid pool party," Arthur said. "Before it gets too cold. And I just – I wanted to go. But – it's not like I can keep my jacket it on, right? Either it'll get wet or cling to my back or some prick is going to yank it off or- I couldn't. So I said no. But…" He bit his lip. "I wanted to. Just this once. I haven't been swimming in so long and it's just a stupid party and-"

He stopped himself by taking another bite of sushi.

Father just sighed.

"Arthur," Father said. "You will be rid of these wings, soon, and then you can go to all the pool parties you want and enjoy all the swimming you want. But you can't just keep hurting yourself until then." He took a bite of sushi and said, "Let's put off replacing the mirror this time for a few weeks until after your wings are gone?"

Biting his lip, flushing, Arthur nodded. He supposed they should have just not replaced the mirror last time Arthur did this. But then, that was almost a year ago.

"…do you think there will be a lot of scars left?" Arthur asked. "Once they're gone?"

"Probably some, though some will disappear with it. If it's too many, we can get some cosmetic surgery to fix it, though if it's just a few we can leave them, uphold the lies about you needing back surgery."

Arthur nodded, finishing his own sushi and setting down the plate and chopsticks on the table. "I just – I hate these wings. It's not even the wings, it's what they do to me!"

Uther rubbed the side of Arthur's neck paternally, before gripping Arthur's hand as Arthur leaned his head against his father's strong shoulder as if he were little again. He couldn't wait to get rid of his wings (if nothing else, so his father could hug him again without having to brace himself, first).

"It's okay to be hurt, Arthur," Uther said. "And angry and scared. But just hold on, okay? Just another week and a half and you will be free."

Arthur nodded, not bothering to try and muster up a smile. Not much longer. Not much longer at all.

* * *

One downside of having absorbed Morgana's power was just how much she was abusing her opportunity to touch Merlin.

"I don't need more clothes!" he protested as she dragged him towards Avalon Apparel. "My wardrobe is fine!"

"Yes, but I can make it 'good'…then we'll move on to great."

Based on her definition of 'good', Merlin didn't want to see great, and promptly tried to fly away, utilizing his 'lessons' with Lancelot, but Morgana just clung onto his ankle and Merlin wasn't good enough to lift someone else with him yet so he ended up being dragged by her again like a balloon.

Behind and below him, Gwen was laughing, while Lance, flying behind them, was just rolling his eyes.

"Just go along with it," Lance said. "And get it over with. She does this to everyone."

Inside, Sophia took one look at the flying boys and said, "Either of you get stuck up there and you're on your own."

"Duly noted," Merlin said. "Just tell Morgana to let me go and I'll leave the store completely and-"

"Not a chance," Morgana said blithely. "So, Sophia, what've you got?"

Which was how Merlin up loaded down with bags of clothing, again, some of it ridiculously thin but all of it covering. There were a lot of turtlenecks, arm warmers, high-ankle socks, some scarves, a bunch of hats, many of it in thin linens or mesh and lace type things which Merlin felt looked absolutely ridiculous but the others just seemed to love…what was one supposed to do with all these clothes?

"Wear them," Morgana answered, and Merlin just sighed as she paid Sophia.

In a vengeful fit, he shoved the bags at her and stomped over to where Gwen and Lance were watching a telly and chatting with the man who ran the coffee shop down the street.

"…new iPhone isn't actually all that different," Lance said. "Mostly a revamped version of the old one-"

"Ah, but the OS isn't the main point, is it?" the coffee-shop bloke answered. "The features, features! Oh, and you have to admit the processing power is much better…"

Merlin stopped listening at that point, especially as the advert for the iPhone in question disappeared on the TV, returning to the actual news, and instead turned to Gwen.

"How do you put up with that?" Merlin asked, gesturing to where Lance and the bloke were arguing about the merits of some computer thingy that Merlin didn't bother to understand.

"Eh – he knows better than to get me to understand," Gwen said, lazily getting the plants in the window sill to sway in time with some trees outside. "Unless it has to do with how environmentally friendly something is."

Merlin laughed, taking over one of the plants and getting it to sway in a slightly different pattern that Gwen responded to, as if the plants were dancing.

"So Leon says you're talking to your friend Will again?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah," Merlin said, not hiding the big grin on his face. He was helping others with his powers, learning more about his own, he and Mum were bonding again, and Will was talking to him again. Life was good.

"You look so much happier, Merlin," Gwen said. "It's lovely to see."

"Thanks," Merlin said. "You too."

Gwen smiled. "Thank you, too."

"Of course," Merlin said. "On your end it might have something to do with those rumors about you and Lance going to each other's rooms at night…?"

Gwen blushed furiously, and Merlin laughed.

"It's nothing lewd, Merlin!" Gwen insisted.

"I'm sure it isn't," Merlin said, with a Serious Face that wasn't very Serious.

"I'm serious!" Gwen said, punching his arms. "There's nothing going on between us. It's…perfectly…innocent…between…us…"

Merlin frowned as the mirth suddenly left her face. She was staring up at the telly behind him, and Merlin turned to see the news tagline, _Pendragon Inc CEO Announces Cure for Mutants._

He used his telekinesis to turn up the volume, until the shop was silent as they watched.

"I'm coming to you live from the press conference taking place in the lobby of Pendragon Inc's main headquarters," a reporter said, from outside a tall, sleek tower in the middle of London's business district. "Where Uther Pendragon is expounding on his corporation's press release that they have discovered a cure for mutant DNA!"

Then camera cut to a room full of staff in business suits and reporters, with the infamous Uther Pendragon, head anti-mutant activist of Britain and massive global medical research tycoon, was walking up to a podium to a slew of questions from the reporters. But he stood there silently until everyone calmed down, then started speaking.

"Many of you know me by the rumors and media deceits used to make me a caricature," Pendragon started. "As someone who hates mutants. I do not. I have stated several times that I do not hate them at all. I do not hate patients for being sick, which is what mutants are."

"_Sick_," Morgana hissed with a disgust and hatred Merlin had never heard the likes of from her direction.

"But while many others seek to ostracize mutants, to hurt them for the misfortune of being born ill and deformed in body and heart-"

"_Heart?_" Morgana cried out again. "Who the fuck does he think he is?"

"-I have sought to help them, all my life, to cure them. And we have finally done it. Today, I stand here before you, before the country, and before the world – and before every mutant in it – offering a cure. We have found a way to reverse unnatural mutations, to take deformed genes and make them human again."

He held out his arm to the side, beckoning someone forward. A boy, about their age, came on, his otherwise-handsome teen face marred by burns and twisted skin.

"Meet Edwin Myrddin," Pendragon said, draping his arm gently over the boy's shoulders, as if the boy were a favored nephew, or his son. "He was born with the misfortune of fire under his command, a command he did not have. Minor tantrums of childhood could become disasters when fire grew out of his control. He feared all forms of it, from stoves to fireplaces to emergency candles. A force that has brought humanity light, heat, and strength for thousands of years has become a source of trauma and frustration. Simply being near him could cause fire to erupt out of control, a tragedy that came to a head when he lost control as a child, and burned down his home – his parents still inside of it."

Edwin winced on screen, and Pendragon patted his shoulder sympathetically, before gesturing to someone behind the camera and stepping out of the way as a projector came to light, playing some sort of video clip.

Gwen clutched at Merlin's hand as the screen on the, well, newscaster's screen came to life, and it appeared to be an office or lab of some kind, with a very young-looking Edwin, maybe ten years ago, sitting on an examination table, a doctor in front of him and holding up cards with math and word problems on them, the little boy clearly concentrating on them as he struggled to answer them in his head.

Five meters behind the boy, another lab person walked in quietly, holding a candle with a small, small flame.

"As you can see," Pendragon said from next to the projection screen, just at the edge of the telly screen. "The boy is heavily concentrating on something else, and does not even know the fire is _there_."

The lab person carefully stepped forward, a little counter at the bottom of the screen going down, showing distance as the lab person approached the boy silently from behind. At three and a half meters, the candle flame jumped, growing bigger and bigger until it was almost like a small fire.

By two meters, the assistant had to hold the candle away from her as the flame grew to the size of her heard. Just one step forward and it almost doubled in size, until it was almost towering over her.

Then the boy on the screen saw shadows, turned around, and promptly screamed as he scrambled off the table and away from the flame, cowering in the opposite corner of the room, the flame lowering as he was well over several meters away again – but still remaining unnaturally large, now that he was looking at it.

The clip ended, and some doctor person was holding onto a shaking, older Edwin's arm as Pendragon stood back up at the podium.

"That was the young man you see before you almost eight years ago," Uther said. "Fire responded drastically to him even as he tried not to do anything at all."

Someone brought a candle forward live in the lobby, and several people stepped back as the person holding it approached Edwin with it. The boy was staring at it, but he did not move, and even when the person stood right in front of him with the candle, nothing happened. Edwin even raised a hand and slowly ran his fingers right through the flame, with no response.

Several people in the room gasped as Edwin held up his hand, then looked at the line of soot across it and grimaced, letting out a very teenage, "Ew."

As the room filled with bubbly laughter, more out of relief and joy from the demonstration than Edwin's teenage fuss, Pendragon said, "The boys stands here before you, _cured_ of his affliction. This cure we now offer to the world."

The press room exploded with questions, but Merlin couldn't hear them anymore.

He lowered his gaze and looked around the shop. Gwen, Lance, Sophia, and the four other mutants in the room all looked stunned.

Morgana looked furious and ill.

Merlin just felt destroyed, before slowly looking down at his hands.

Cured. He could – it could be gone. He could get rid of-

"Don't even think about it, Merlin," Morgana said harshly, finishing paying a dazed Sophia before snatching the bags and stomping out, the other three behind her. "We're all just fine the way we are. We don't need a cure. We're not sick."

Merlin shut his eyes.

"Then why do I feel like it?" Merlin asked quietly. But no one else heard him over their own shock and rage. A cure, a cure for being a mutant.

Merlin could be free.

* * *

**Reviews are loved!**

If you go **to my profile**, and click on my **homepage link**, you will be taken to my **LiveJournal**, and the second post down, titled "_My Purple Dove Project Fic_", you will see a preview for my **Arthur/Gwaine/Merlin sequel to my Arthur/Merlin BDSM series,** which currently includes the fics _Get Me Down On My Knees_ and _This Play Between The Sheets_. Feel free to go see, and leave a comment if there are any kinks you hope to see in the full fic. :)

**Next Chapter, 2.3 - Fight:** It's like pulling petals off a daisy: "I'll get the cure. I won't. I need the cure. I don't." Except daisies eventually give you answers. People don't. Especially not annoying sisters, well-meaning friends, and sympathetic headmasters. But most of all, the last one to get an answer from is the one whose answer you need the most: yourself.**  
**


	10. Fight

There were protests in the streets, and Arthur knew, soon they would be riots. He was holed away in his living room, lounging on the couch with his feet on the coffee table (thankfully, the maid wasn't here) and his laptop on his knees.

And the television tuned to the news.

Riots were only a stone's throw away (literally).

"It's amazing," the newscaster said. "These people actually want to remain sick, and they don't want to be cured!"

Father didn't understand, either.

As much as it pained Arthur, he did understand.

He looked down at the screen of his laptop, where the only other mutant he knew was writing something in the IM box. Shrugging it off, he went and read one of the more…wild blogs on the subject.

_Mutants don't need a cure, _ it said. _They need acceptance. I lost my best friend because he wasn't accepted. They are not sick, they are not abominations, they are people. They are human beings, and you can't cure a human of humanity. _

But they weren't human.

Where they?

He'd asked Father, once. He'd told Arthur not to worry, that the cure was well underway, then he'd changed the subject.

In the IM box, **we don't need a cure Arthur**, just popped up.

**I don't care, ** he typed in. **I want that cure. I want to be normal again. **

**We're fine the way we are, ** she said.

**How do you know? ** How could anyone know? Maybe-

**We are FINE. Stop this. Run away. Please. You know where I am, you can be safe. You'll be accepted. You'll be normal, here – I know a boy with a tail! **

**That's not actually reassuring, you know. **

She sent a bunch of eye-rolling emoticons,

With a sigh, Arthur switched windows while she typed something and he read through his e-mails. In between the usual spam about penis enlargement (which he did not need, thank you very much!) and the digest updates from his news feeds, he found the one from his father saying he'd home for dinner, today.

Arthur looked back up to the news on the telly.

"The blogosphere has erupted with this news," the newscaster said. "It appears no one can actually agree on this. Many mutants are denouncing the cure, while many more say that while they do not believe in the need for a cure, they themselves wish to have one. Parliament is rumored to be on the verge of debate concerning this cure. At the moment, when the cures become available en masse, they will be optional and voluntary, but there is talk of making the cure mandatory for either all mutants, mutants with certain types of powers, or higher-classified mutants…"

Well, that last one wouldn't affect Arthur – he was only a Class I.

Biting his lip, he watched as the news turned to some fiasco at a celebrity wedding, and went back to his computer.

More spam. Really, spam filters were useless. And as much as he did not need penis enlargement (or breast enlargement, and how the hell did that get in there?), he needed weight loss gimmicks even less.

Just because he had wings didn't mean he had to go twink-mode or anything. He was the best football player at his school, with the body and muscles to match.

Even if no one ever saw them – after all, that would require taking his shirt off.

But right now, no one was home, and his back was sweating under the layers of wings he had currently pulled in close to his back and strapped in place. Maybe just for a little bit…

He shook his head. Assuming he wasn't held up again but some important business person, Father would be home, soon. The less Father saw his wings, the better.

Instead, he looked back down at his computer. That one blog which he really, really, really shouldn't read, but…

…it was…

…stupid. He was going to be human, again. And this guy was a political whirlwind, a headache Arthur didn't need. He had tens of thousands of other readers, it wouldn't be any skin off his nose to lose Arthur. Except…

The post Arthur kept rereading was almost a month back in the archives.

_Would if have mattered if my friend had been drunk and hit me with a car? It's stupid, and I hate that I've been hurt, but I don't hate him, certainly not because he's a mutant. People get hurt, and I'm man enough to deal with it and move on. I don't resent him, and I don't hate him._

I just wish I'd told him that sooner.

What kind of a friend could be hurt by a mutant and not hate them? That's what Arthur wanted to know.

He would never find out himself, of course – none of his friends even knew he was a mutant, and none of them would ever know. He would get rid of his wings and become human, again, become his father's son. He would be normal, and can finally play football shirtless and make the girls at school swoon (more than he already did) and make other boys jealous, and maybe even make a few of them swoon, too, like that attractive Colin bloke…maybe.

One advantage of being a mutant was that there was nothing worse. When Father'd found his stash of porn under the bed and found more than just an 'I was curious' amount of gay porn among it, he'd shaken his head and rolled his eyes and Arthur had been so relieved, though unsurprised – if his father could still love him as a mutant, he could accept him despite being gay.

(Though maybe there could be a cure for that, too?)

In the IM box, he read, **we don't need a cure, because there's nothing to cure. We're Humans, like everyone else, and we need acceptance. You need acceptance, and love, not that reward-and-punishment cycle you get from your dad right now. You deserve better, Arthur, so much better. **

Arthur frowned at some of the wording.

**He's your dad, too.**

No – he's my biological Father, but it ends there. My real dad was the man who actually loved my mum for more than a shag and loved me no matter my genes. If you had a real dad, he would too. But your father is an ass who doesn't deserve you. 

He sighed. She was wrong. It was Arthur who didn't deserve Father. He was lucky Father still loved him, and was working so much on the cure for him.

But Morgana would never understand.

Instead, he said, **It's getting late, Dad'll be home, soon. I should go before he sees me talking to you. Good night. Good luck with sleep.**

Thanks, but I don't need it anymore. There's a mutant here who can copy powers, we did mine, and we figured out a way for me to control them. He's cute, just your type. Another reason to come here. Arthur fought the urge to roll his eyes at Morgana's words.

**I don't need to travel across the country to get laid, that's just you. Good night.**

Good night, Arthur. Sweet dreams. And please – I'm still here for you.

I know, he said, and watched as she signed off.

After that, he signed off, and went back to sorting his e-mails and checking newsfeeds, before shutting down his laptop entirely and standing up, stretching his arms and legs, and pondered going into the bathroom to stretch his wings. They were getting cramped. It's been almost two days, already, since he last stretched them out, and he knew he was pushing it with keeping them in longer and longer, but-

_Snick_

Never mind. Father was home.

He turned around just as the front door opened to see Father walking in, an inexplicable smile on his face.

"Arthur! Have you been watching the news?"

"The bit about the 'Hollywood-Bollywood' wedding or the piece about the old lady who tried to rob a bank with knitting needles?" he asked sardonically.

Father laughed, shaking his head as he set down his briefcase and went over to the stove, where the cook has already left dinner waiting for them. Warming them up, he said, "No – the cure."

Arthur nodded. "Its…availability?"

Father nodded, leaving dinner to warm as he came over to Arthur side.

The news just looped back to the protests against the cure, and Father shook his head.

"I just don't understand them – why on earth would anyone want to remain sick?" he asked.

"I think it's just all those rumors about the cure, what it does to you," Arthur said with a shrug. It was all lies, but they were the only words his father would understand. "Once they see that the people who take them are fine, they'll come around."

"Some won't – far too many mutants have benefitted from having power over others that they don't deserve."

Arthur just nodded again.

"But you, Arthur…" Father came around and faced Arthur, clapping his hands on Arthur's shoulders. "You will be cured, soon. You won't be sick anymore."

Arthur made his face smile, even though he couldn't make himself smile. Cured. Human. Soon, that will be him. Soon.

He had to hold onto that.

(He tried.) 

* * *

Unsurprisingly, Gaius ended up needing to give a speech on the matter.

As everyone trudged down to the dining-hall-slash-auditorium, Merlin wondered, vaguely, what the man would say.

"Sit down, sit down, please," Gaius said, as the staff rounded up the rowdy students. Merlin saw Gwaine and Morgause somehow tag-teaming with Professors Alice, Algain, and Morgan to get some of the rowdier students to sit quietly. But for the most parts, the students already were, subdued in their own thoughts about the cure.

"Now," Gaius said, as soon as all the students were seated. For once, there was almost no whispering, as instead students listened, keen to know more about the cure. "I'm sure you've all heard that there is a professed 'cure' for mutantism, a serum to suppress the mutant gene. It is true – as well as it's known so far, the cure's creators say one injection will end mutantism in the patient it is given to, and so far this seems accurate."

There was a beat of silence as Gaius set the record straight, and a few students looked nervously at each other.

"The school will not shut down, no one will be mandated to get the cure, and no one will have the cure forced onto them," Gaius said.

He paused. "And while we call it a cure, please know that it is _not_ a cure – for a cure would imply that there is something wrong with you, and there isn't. Each and every one of you is dear to me, and to this school. Mutantism is not an illness or malicious condition of any sort."

Merlin sighed and looked down at his hand, blinking into infrared vision and seeing the nervousness of the student body in the form of rising temperatures. He thought of his dad and his mum and Will and thought, _well it definitely feels malicious. _

He went on a little more, explaining the details about what he knew – which wasn't much – and about which students (the oldest) would be allowed to leave of their own volition to get the cure, but Merlin tuned him out, instead focusing his gaze on the students around him.

Even without using his telepathy, Merlin knew which students wanted to go right away, which ones resented the cure – and which ones resented being too young to be allowed to make that decision. While the students of Camelot were given a nearly alarming amount of independence for a boarding school, that didn't change the fact that so many of them were just kids.

Merlin wanted to get this cure. He…he could just go to London, get in line, and-

"Merlin?"

After the little speech, as the staff herded the kids towards classes, Gaius gestured Merlin over and together, they slipped past the throng of nervous – _scared_ – students, up the increasingly empty floors, and into Gaius's office.

"I want the cure," Merlin blurted.

Gaius sighed Merlin. "I'm sorry, Merlin, but-"

"You can't forbid us from it," Merlin said desperately, clutching desperately at his knees. "I-I just want to – I can get a train to London and some medicine and then I can be normal and-"

"Merlin," Gaius said sharply. Merlin quieted. He knew whatever it was Gaius was going to say wouldn't be good news. "You're right, you're not forbidden from it. But – the cure has been shown to have different effects based on your class. The exact nature of the cure changes based on your gene class, and where you might fall into it, and just which broad spectrum your powers fall into."

"…what does this mean?" Merlin asked.

Gaius sighed. "It means that I don't have to forbid you from getting the cure because there is no cure for you, Merlin – at least, not one that we know is safe. And…at the moment, it's assumed there are no more Class V's left in the world. If word got out about you – I fear for your safety, cure or no cure. And even if you could get to the clinic and they decided to try…they have no concrete data. The last Class V's died just a few years after your own birth, long before research into the cure truly started. They would be shooting in the dark, if they tried to cure you at all, and it is far more likely you would end up hurt or dead in the end, than cured."

Merlin stared. "But…you said – what if I didn't take it, just brought some back? Y-you could study it and-"

"…I will try," Gaius said. "But right now, my main focus will be trying to understand the cure, at all. I've been following various online medical journals carefully, especially since the cure was announced, and it's a bit of an open secret that there are a lot of underhanded dealing and goings-on beneath the table, with the way Pendragon Inc has been able to keep their mouths shut so tightly." Gaius shook his head almost ruefully. "Uther is a powerful man and not one to be trifled with."

"You sound as if you know him," Merlin accused.

"…there was a time when Uther's views on mutants were…very different, Merlin. We both worked in researching mutant DNA. Your father used to work for him, Merlin."

"So you did know him," Merlin asked, staring in disbelief. It was hard to imagine someone as warm and caring as Gaius even being in the same room as that cold and hateful man.

"The past is in the past, Merlin, let us leave it there." Merlin opened his mouth to rebuke, but while Gaius' tone had been soft, he also clearly would not argue or reveal any more than what he's already said. "I am truly sorry about this, Merlin, but you cannot go. It is too risky for you."

Merlin shut his eyes, and firmly pretended he was trying not to cry. 

* * *

"You can't get the cure!"

"I can too!"

"No, you can't, you can't turn your back on us-"

"I'm not, I'm helping myself! I hate being a mutant-"

"No, you hate people treating you like a mutant-"

"Same difference, for me! I'm not like you, I can't just pretend to be human when I look like this!"

"You _are_ human!"

And round and round it went. Merlin stiffly in the blue and bronze 'Ravenclaw' lounge and watched as Morgana argued with another boy, Alvarr, who had glass-looking skin and powers involving crystals.

"He has a point," Merlin said, somewhat darkly, to Morgana. "We can pass. He can't."

"We shouldn't _have_ to pass!" Morgana snapped, turning her latest temper on him.

"You're right, we shouldn't, but we do," Alvarr said. "What was it like for _you_ before you came?"

"Oh, you have no idea," she hissed. "My father – he's…well, let's just say he has strong opinions against mutants. I had to listen every day as he railed against mutants, without knowing he was railing against his daughter. A daughter he wouldn't even acknowledged was his until-"

"At least you were never _attacked_ for being a mutant," Merlin said. "It's not fun, not being able to leave your house for fear of assault."

"It's not fun having to go home for fear of-"

"Enough," Lance said, stepping in between them carefully. "It's…it's his decision. And ours. We can each make our own decision about this cure."

"What about you, Lance?" Morgana sniped, dropping into an armchair once Alvarr left to go pack his things. "Are you going to get the cure?"

"No – I can live with my power, and hide it. But regardless – it's my problem, not yours."

Morgana looked to the rest.

"I'm keeping mine," Gwen said.

"I…" Merlin looked down at his lap. "Gaius told me – my powers are too unstable. He thinks I'd get hurt if I tried to get the cure. We…we can't even figure out what gene class I'm in, and we already know that the exact cure you get depends on which class you are in."

"But if you _could_ get the cure, would you?" Morgana asked.

"Yes."

The others all stared at him, and he sighed. "I just want to be normal. Average, normal, Merlin, nothing special. Get into a nice art school, and spend my life making the world look a little better."

"Look a little better to hide all its ugliness," Morgana sneered, getting up and storming out of the room.

Gwen gave Merlin an apologetic look and ran after Morgana, and Lance moved so he was sitting on the sofa right next to Merlin.

"I…I hope, Merlin, you'll come to see yourself for the great person you are," he said. But he looked sad, worn, and Merlin had one of those inexplicable moments where he wondered what Lance's story was. "But…it's your body. Your DNA. Your choice."

"…thanks," Merlin said, looking out the door the girls had just gone through. "I just wish…I don't know what, to be honest. I just hate all this…all this fear and resentment flying around."

"It's okay," Lance said, floating up a little to grab a remote from a bookshelf. "These are tough times. So it's a good thing we're tough people."

Merlin nodded, though it didn't help much – and he could see Lance knew it.

He honestly wasn't even surprised when Leon crawled into his lap and wrapped his arms around him and held on tight. He just held on tight, and thought _thank you_.

Leon didn't think in words, instead thinking of fireplaces and blankets and other comfy things, and Merlin smiled as he let the little boy's care wash over him. 

* * *

They were packing up and setting off for London, tomorrow. Arthur had already said good bye to his friends, saying it was another treatment, that soon, they could see him with his shirt off.

(Several of them took one look at their girlfriends' faces and told Arthur to take his time on that, and Arthur laughed. Really, truly- he'd forgotten how easy it could be to laugh about himself.)

In the city, he wouldn't be able to fly, too many eyes and lights all the time. But out here, well…

He stood on the roof, having flown out of his window before shooting up a few dozen meters, then drifting down here. He'd always had to _jump_ from something or off something to fly, but he'd never actually just flown right off the ground. Before he lost his wings, he wanted to see if he could.

But right now, he was getting tired, having flapped his wings futilely for the last ten minutes, getting nothing in return. He fell down to sitting on the roof, leaning back against the slanted titles as he stared up at the sky, the shining moon and twinkling stars, so clear out here away from all the light pollution of the city.

He was going to be human, soon.

Arthur wondered if this was one of those weird anti-climaxes he kept reading about in books and novels, expecting something drastic and feeling nothing. Maybe once he get rid of his wings, things would be better?

With the sigh, he pushed himself up and tried again, half-crouching a bit as he moved his wings, more for lack of anything better-

Except he was still getting the same lift as when he had been standing full upright.

He thought, carefully, back to just about any stupid wildlife documentary he'd ever watched about birds.

Most of them seemed to need a little jump, too.

He swallowed, crouching full, but low, as he pushed himself, his wings, harder, harder, and-

_-jumped. _

He gasped and nearly fell again when, his jump coinciding exactly with a downward flap, he lifted up off the roof, past the tiles and the chimneys and the trees and into the sky itself.

He laughed in disbelief as he realized, yes, he could, he _could_ just fly right off the ground.

On impulse, he flew straight up, higher, past the trees that sheltered his home, over the reaching branches, and for a few moments just stayed that in that little bubble, not rising but not falling.

He never went much higher than this.

But he'd never get the chance to try again.

With a few deep, determined breaths, Arthur added more power to his downstrokes, and curved his upstrokes so the air slipped around his wings instead of bringing him down, and quickly rose higher, higher, and even higher, until he looked around and realized there was nothing around him, nothing blocking his view, nothing, and that he was more than a hundred meters off the ground.

As he rose even higher, could feel the beginnings of cold, cold moisture on the back of his neck, and wings started to feel lighter. And even though he could feel his ears pop slightly from the airpressure, his lungs and his body didn't feel deprived of oxygen in the slightest. For a few moments he frowned as he realized his flaps were changing, before realizing up here this was easier, and oh god he was listening to his instincts, and he was certain he could go up into the clouds and disappear-

-he stopped flapping, stretching out his wings and feeling his muscles stretch as he let the air balloon under them, letting him drift to the ground. Close to the earth, he glided onto the roof, before landing. When he did, he looked up and stared at the height he'd gone to.

He probably could disappear into the clouds. But he won't, because he was going to London and getting the cure and becoming human again, and then, he was never going into the air ever again. At least not without the great big metal shelves of an airplane.

He spent the entire climb back down into his room reminding himself that this was a good thing.

It was.

It was.

It had to be.

* * *

**A/N: ****Sorry about the long wait! Just started school and kind of sick at the moment, so life's been a little hectic for me.**

* * *

******Next Chapter: The problem with having wings is they make you want to fly.**


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